Jailed gangster Hashim Baba’s wife has been arrested over charges of drug peddling by the Delhi Police Special Cell, officials said on Wednesday. Around 225 grams of heroin was allegedly recovered from her possession when she was going to deliver it.
A senior police officer said Zoya, 33, was arrested from Northeast Delhi’s Welcome. “Police received information that she was indulging in drug peddling and acting on this input, police gathered evidence against her. On Wednesday morning, police received information that she was going to deliver the consignment to someone in her car. A trap was laid and she was arrested red-handed from the spot along with 225 grams of heroin,” the officer said, adding that a fresh case on the charges has been registered against her.
Last year, gangster Hashim Baba was arrested from Tihar jail in connection with the murder of a gym owner, Nadir Shah, in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash. He claimed in a “judicial confession” that another jailer gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was behind the hit. “Hashim was in Tihar jail in 2021 when Bishnoi came to Tihar from a Punjab jail and they became close friends. After around six to seven months, he moved to Punjab and came back again…In 2023, he was moved to Sabarmati Jail, and around two months ago (in August) last year, he started talking with Hashim over the phone frequently… He (Hashim) has claimed that Bishnoi in a video call showed his two cellphones and also claimed that there were good arrangements for him in the jail,” police said.
Hashim Baba, whose real name is Ashim, was born in 1982 in Indira Vihar in Gokulpuri. Hashim’s family hails from Aghapur village in Gajraula, near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. Police officers said his father left his village and came to Delhi to his brother’s home in Jaffrabad.
Hashim also allegedly orchestrated the 2016 Karkarduma court shooting to eliminate Chenu Pehelwan. In 2019, another case under the stringent MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) was registered against Hashim and the Abdul Nasir Gang by the Crime Branch.
“In November 2019, police intercepted a call between one of Hashim’s associates and his wife. He planned to meet her at a building in Subhash Park. Police laid a trap and asked him to surrender, but he came out and opened fire with his pistol. He was shot in his left leg and arrested by the Special Cell. Since 2019, despite being in jail, he has allegedly ordered six killings,” the officer said.
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