This gangster had two-decade history

Our Correspondent

Gurugram, November 16

Gangster Ashok Rathi entered the world of crime in 1999, when he was 22 years old. Three FIRs were filed against him that year — two for robbery and one for dacoity.

By the end of 2001, Ashok was a known criminal. Among other charges, he was accused of killing a youth during robbery at a printing press in Gurgaon.

He was in love with Sushma, a girl from a village, and they eloped. When Ashok, wanted in several cases, was sent to prison, Sushma was taken home by her family and married to another man.

Sushma came back from her husband’s house within a month. They eloped again and got married in 2007. People were against their relationship as they were from same village.

Villagers said in the first three years after their marriage, Sushma and Ashok appeared to be happy though he was mostly in prison.

Around a year after their marriage, Sushma gave birth to Bhumi. Sushma’s family appeared to have accepted Ashok.

Villagers said he was on good terms with her mother Anguri Devi and brother Dharmender. It came as a shock when Ashok was accused of killing Anguri and Dharmender.

According to the FIR at the Sadar police station in Palwal, Dharmender (20) was shot in a field in Palwal on August 9, 2011, a day after he went there for some work with Ashok and Anguri. The body of Sushma’s mother’s was never found.

Ashok was convicted in 2014 and was serving life imprisonment at the Bhondsi jail. After the murders, Sushma began to lead an independent life, managing her home, daughter and land by herself.

In November 2015, Sushma filed an FIR at the Bhondsi police station, claiming that Ashok had called her up from prison and threatened to kill her.

On September 2, Sushma was walking back to her scooter after sending Bhumi on her schoolbus when she was shot dead.

Bhumi was living under police protection with Sushma’s sister Nitu. Ashok reportedly confessed to having got Sushma killed over an alleged affair.

Three of the 28 members of Rathi’s gang were in jail. A police official said they operated mainly in Gurgaon and Sohna and were involved in loot, robbery, extortion, criminal intimidation and murder.