Love, crime and murder: 'Lady don' behind airline crew member murder in Delhi Police net

NEW DELHI: Crime Branch of Delhi Police has nabbed fugitive Kajal Khatri, one of the alleged masterminds behind the killing of an airline crew member in Noida in Jan. Suraj had no criminal antecedent and was bumped off because his brother, Parvesh Mann, was a gangster. The killing, police said, was planned by jailed gangster Kapil Maan alias Kallu and executed through his wife, Khatri.

Additional CP (crime) Sanjay Bhatia said they had been tracking Khatri for a few months. A team comprising inspector Sandeep Tushir and others had conducted several raids in Haryana.

Recently, the team received a tipoff about her presence at a hotel in Hisar. A raid was conducted and she was arrested.

Khatri is not only Mann's wife but also his partner in crime, said police. Her intricate network spanned jails, streets and underworld hideouts, and she allegedly manipulated gang dynamics, fuelling vendettas and orchestrating hits.

Their love story began in 2016 when Khatri met Mann at a gym in Rohini's Sector 11. Their friendship blossomed into romance during a party in 2019, and they subsequently got married at a temple in Haryana. As their romance blossomed, Mann's criminal empire also expanded, with Khatri by his side. "Together, they orchestrated heists, extorted businesses and eliminated rivals," said a source.

In Sept 2019, Mann's luck ran out, and he was arrested. But Khatri continued to co-ordinate his operations, using her wit and beauty to manipulate others. She also visited Mann in jail to plot their moves.

The origins of Mann's rivalry with Pravesh dated back to a land dispute between their families in Delhi's Khera Khurd village. The conflict began over a mere 100 yards of land and has since escalated into a bloody cycle of violence, claiming five lives on each side. The feud intensified in 2018 when Pravesh's gang murdered Kapil's uncle, Surya Prakash alias Bablu Kheda. Pravesh's brother, Anil alias Banti, was killed later that year and his close associate, Veerendra Mann, on Sept 8, 2019.

While Khatri is in custody, another woman fugitive, Anu, who plotted the Burger King shooting by honey-trapping the target, is still on the run.

She was last spotted at Katra station in Jammu. On the night of June 18-19, Aman Joon had arrived at the outlet in Rajouri Garden with Anu. Minutes later, three men arrived there and shot Joon. They left without any resistance, so did she.