The police claim they received information about the presence of a notorious gang responsible for several dacoities, murders and abductions in Delhi.

They also learnt that the gangleader, Ali, 50, was living in Delhi. A special police team was detailed to arrest him. On May 14, the team came to know that the gang was planning the abduction of a rich Civil Lines businessman. They learnt that Ali would rendezvous with the rest of the gang -- Munnawar, Sarfaraj Tyagi, Arshad among others -- at the Wazirabad bridge at 6 p.m. to plan the abduction. At 5.55 p.m., Ali reached the bridge on foot. He waited for his associates till 6.40 p.m. and when they did not arrive, he started walking toward Soorghat. The police team surrounded him and asked him to surrender. In a bid to escape, he pulled out a country made revolver and fired at the police party, narrowly missing Head Constable Suresh Rana. He was overpowered and three live cartridges were seized from him alongwith the revolver and empty cartridge. Under interrogation, Ali told the police that he was involved in over 28 cases of crime including five murders, five kidnappings, two dacoities. His gang mainlyoperated in the Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur areas of Uttar Pradesh. He reportedly started in the world of crime in 1980 as a petty thief. In 1985, he committed his first murder: that of his village pradhan for which he was jailed till 1988. Thereafter he committed a spate of dacoities and murders.

Most of Ali's old gang members reportedly died in police encounters for the three years he was in jail. He has been declared a proclaimed offender in as many as 24 cases.