Liquor smuggler Devanand has 2 wives, many girlfriends

GHAZIABAD: A gangster arrested in Ghaziabad for running a well-organised network to sneak in

liquor

into dry Bihar has two wives in the

eastern

state and Delhi and “several” girlfriends to whom he has given flats in various parts of NCR, police said.


Devanand, who carried a Rs 25,000 reward on his head, is known among his accomplices for his lavish lifestyle. Police said he owns SUVs and luxury cars, and though he calls himself an illiterate, he is known to speak English fluently.

Police said Devanand, popular in his circles as Kunj Bihari, would source liquor from Haryana and Rajasthan and engage couriers to take them to Bihar.

Subhash Chandra Dubey, SP (railways) Moradabad division, said: “Devanand led a lavish lifestyle and moved around in expensive cars. Several of his gangs, which have around 25 members, are not only involved in smuggling of liquor but also pickpocket and robbery. He had around 15 youths to sneak in liquor to Bihar and paid them Rs 1,000 for each trip. He had his contacts in Bihar-bound trains and seldom faced trouble in ferrying liquor bottles carefully hidden in cartons.”

According to the police officer, Devanand made anything between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh a month. His income included those from 12 stalls he runs in Delhi Metro stations.

Devanand came under the police scanner as any person caught smuggling liquor to Bihar over the years named “Kunj Bihari” as their operator. “His network spread to as far as Meerut and Moradabad, besides Delhi-NCR. Last month, a reward of Rs 25,000 was declared on his head,” Dubey said.

GRP officers said Devanand had married twice and his two wives lived in Begusarai in Bihar and Delhi. The officers said it was a cause for concern how Devanand managed to procure licences in the name of his relatives and friends to run 12 stalls in Metro stations in Delhi despite having 11 criminal cases against him.

He recently deposited around Rs 80 lakh to bag a tender for operating stalls in

Mumbai Monorail

.

Sources said Devanand was active in Delhi-NCR for the past two decades. Over the years, he amassed huge health and invested in property in his hometown Begusarai and Delhi.

He, along with his aide Sunil Bihari, had been jailed at least five times in the past in connection with criminal cases registered in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Aligarh. The duo had a rivalry with one Babloo, who was reportedly coming in their way of selling drugs near railway stations, since 2006. Babloo was killed in 2014, and since then, Sunil Bihari is in jail.

Police said Devanand had entered the world of crime when he was just 14 and was lodged in an observation home for two-and-a-half years in Delhi in connection with a case of robbery.

He started smuggling of alcohol and selling drugs soon after coming out of the observation home. Soon, he formed his own gang.