5 min readJun 27, 2026 08:36 AM IST
Months after Nadir Shah, an Afghan-origin businessman, was shot dead outside his gym in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash-I on September 12, 2024, police were still connecting the dots to crack the murder case. Investigators suspected gangster Hashim Baba’s involvement and they were hot on the trail of his allies — Shabir Chaudhary and Anwar Chacha. In April 2025, they finally caught hold of a man, who later became a witness in the case, for allegedly arranging an escape for the shooters.
“This man told the police that Shabir and Anwar had masterminded the shooting. That is how we established the link with Hashim Baba,” said a police source. The same month, Shabir and Anwar Chacha were both booked in a case filed under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
After over a year-long pursuit, police had a breakthrough on June 14 — Shabir Ahmad was nabbed from the Shambhu border in Haryana following specific intelligence and technical surveillance, an official said. He has been brought to Delhi for further legal proceedings, officers said on Friday. According to police, Shabir is a key member of the Hashim Baba gang, and allegedly heads the Shabir Chaudhary-Hashim Baba-Anwar Chacha crime syndicate
DCP Praveen Tripathi, who led the team that arrested him, told The Indian Express, “His gang is operating predominantly in the Trans-Yamuna and North-East Delhi areas, including Seelampur, Bhajanpura, Maujpur, Shahdara, and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh. Multiple cases of extortion, murder, attempt to murder, land grabbing and other heinous crimes have been registered against the members of this gang. Members of this syndicate were also found to be operating from outside the country, mainly Nepal and Dubai.”
Rise and fall of Shabir
It was a hot and humid afternoon in July, 2008. Shabir Chaudhary, who was gradually building a notorious reputation as a local gangster, was fuming, according to police. A native of Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, he had allegedly started off with involvement in extortion and murder cases in North East Delhi in the mid-90s. Sitting somewhere in the dusty, cramped, and labyrinthian lanes of Seelampur — where budding gangsters in North East Delhi allegedly got trained — he plotted revenge for his brother’s killing, said officers.
His brother, Shamim Chaudhary, was allegedly shot dead by the members of a rival gang led by jailed Anwar Thakur.
The two alleged shooters, Roti and Ayub, were to come near Seelampur police station, learnt Shabir. That afternoon, Shabir and his men lynched both the shooters, on the gate of the police station, according to officers.
Shabir then allegedly learnt that a man named Irshad had provided shelter to his brother’s killers, and pierced 18 bullets inside Irshad’s body on August 3. He now ticked all three hallmarks needed in the making of crime boss: poverty, misery and revenge, said police.
Shabir would soon go to jail, where he would meet the kingmakers of the syndicates operating from the underbelly of the city—Hashim Baba and his “organiser-in-chief” Anwar Chacha, said police.
The first MCOCA case against Shabir was filed in 2009, but Shabbir managed to get bail, said a police officer. He merged his gang with Baba, and had been involved in over 14 cases, including that of murder, extortion, kidnapping. His recent big hit was arranging weapons and an escape plan for the killers of Nadir Shah.
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Blow to Hashim Baba gang
Shabir’s arrest came as the second major blow to the Hashim Baba gang in the Capital. Earlier in February, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell nabbed Mahfooz Ali alias Bobby Kabootar (45), who was known to be the last standing strongman for Hashim Baba gang in Northeast Delhi, overseeing all his extortion and betting operations. He was nabbed while he was crossing South Delhi’s Mahipalpur area in his SUV, after a shopping spree with his girlfriend.
Officers said Kabootar had been on the Delhi Police’s wanted list for 10 years, managing to evade arrest whenever attempts were made to nab him. Local police and the Special Staff of the North District had conducted several raids to apprehend him.
Officers said he was also allegedly aided by relatives and associates living in the area. “The narrow lanes of Chauhan Bangar and the terraces of interconnected houses helped him evade police teams during raids in the locality,” an officer said.