Gangs, Guns And City On Edge: How Organised Crime Is Governing Delhi’s Streets-OxBig News Network

New Delhi: Beneath the gleaming surface of Delhi’s urban sprawl lies a dark undercurrent, one carved up by bullets, extortion calls, and social media threats. The capital’s organised crime network is not just alive, it’s thriving, evolving, and expanding its grip over the city’s economic and social fabric. The city, which is often called the seat of political power and the face of modern India, now also bears another identity, as a capital carved up by gang warfare. Behind the glass towers and political corridors, the city’s streets are being quietly and systematically redrawn, not by planners, but by gangsters.

This isn’t just hyperbole. According to reports, the Centre recently informed the Supreme Court that Delhi hosts 95 active gangs, a stark indicator of the crisis’ scale. The city’s criminal landscape has evolved over decades, shifting from older groups like the Kishan Pehalwan and Anoop-Balraj gangs of Najafgarh to modern networks such as the Bishnoi and Sangwan gangs. These groups have grown beyond local thuggery; many now coordinate operations internationally.

The result is a metropolis plagued by turf wars, extortion rackets, and targeted killings, with law enforcement frequently playing catch-up. Their influence spans Rohini, Najafgarh, outer Delhi, Gurgaon, and even parts of Noida and Ghaziabad, forming a loose but deadly confederacy across the NCR.

Why Delhi is fertile ground for crime

But a strong question that shoots up is, why does Delhi breed gangs like this? Because the city makes it easy. Reports indicate that Delhi’s fractured borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh provide criminals easy escape routes and logistical depth. Dense jhuggi clusters offer foot soldiers anonymity, while under-policed areas provide space to operate. In a city of over 30 million, invisibility has become a weapon, one that the state has yet to neutralize.

According to police dossiers and court filings, over 1,100 gangsters are facing trial in more than 5,000 criminal cases. Leading groups like the Lawrence Bishnoi and Hashim Baba gangs run rackets in land, liquor, arms, cyber fraud, and extortion, targeting builders, businessmen, and social media influencers. Despite arrests, these syndicates thrive, using encrypted calls, WhatsApp threats, and social media “status videos” to intimidate, becoming digital-age dons.

Operation Kavach and policing challenge

Faced with this spiraling menace, the Delhi Police have intensified multi-agency offensives, such as Operation Kavach. The latest Operation Kavach 8.0, a narcotics-plus crackdown conducted on June 18–19, 2025, led to 139 arrests in 24 hours across all 15 districts, involving over 350 teams. This resulted in 133 NDPS cases and multiple arrests under the Excise and Arms Acts, underscoring the force’s commitment to dismantling organised crime. Cases registered under MCOCA and the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) provisions have also strengthened legal tools to tackle syndicates.

Yet, experts caution that arrests alone are insufficient. Gangs often reconstitute faster than law enforcement can dismantle them, calling for faster trials, community policing, and enhanced tech-driven intelligence to support police efforts.

This crisis didn’t emerge overnight; it is the result of years of systemic neglect, weak policing, and political indifference. Despite the visible escalation, Delhi Police have made significant efforts against organised crime through coordinated multi-agency operations and legal reforms. However, limitations in manpower, resources, and coordination, compounded by the transnational nature of many gangs, continue to hamper effective enforcement. While the police may arrest local foot soldiers, the masterminds still call the shots from Dubai, Canada, and the UK, mocking the very idea of law and order in the national capital.

What was once a street-level turf war has now metastasised into a full-blown parallel economy, with extortion, arms trafficking, contract killings, cyber-rackets, and real estate muscle forming the backbone of operations.

From college politics to contract killings

If we dig deeper, we find that the roots of some of Delhi’s most notorious gangs trace back to college politics and local street feuds. Reports reveal that the decade-old, infamous Gogi–Tillu rivalry was born in the corridors of Swami Shraddhanand College and has since escalated into a deadly conflict, with over 150 members booked for crimes ranging from extortion to murder.

Inside Tihar: Prisons becoming gang HQs

What makes Delhi’s underworld uniquely dangerous is the control gang leaders continue to exert from inside Tihar Jail. On the morning of May 2, 2023, infamous gangster Sunil Balyan, aka Tillu Tajpuriya, leader of Delhi’s Tillu gang, was brutally murdered by four members of the rival Gogi gang inside the high-security ward of Central Jail No. 8, Tihar Prison. This chilling incident exposed how gangs have transformed prisons into their operational headquarters.

Delhi vs Mumbai’s Underworld

Delhi’s gang landscape is far more fragmented and volatile than Mumbai’s old underworld. Unlike the centralized D-Company model, Delhi’s gangs operate without a clear hierarchy, where even small groups of four can be classified as organised units. This fluidity leads to constant shifting alliances, with gangsters moving between networks for profit or revenge. Hotspots like Najafgarh, Narela, and Rohini have become infamous not only for turf wars but also for illegal arms trafficking and contract killings.

Conclusion: Battle ahead

What does it say about a city where the judiciary is hearing reports of 95 active gangs, and where teenagers are lured into becoming hitmen for Rs 30,000 and an Instagram shoutout? This isn’t just about crime. It’s a mirror to Delhi’s governance vacuum, where politics, policing, and social neglect collide.

Delhi’s gang crisis is no longer hidden; it’s in court filings, jail corridors, Instagram feeds, and broad daylight shootouts. If India’s capital, with all its political power and legal machinery, can’t rein in its underworld, what hope remains for the smaller towns that feed into its bloodstream? The statistics are chilling, the faces are getting younger, and the silence is turning deadly.

This isn’t just a crime wave, it’s a collapse of governance. Where policing falters, politics looks away, and opportunity disappears, violence takes root. The battle ahead isn’t only about arrests; it’s about restoring trust, law, and dignity to a city whose underworld now threatens to overshadow its democracy.