The skinny would-be kingpin and his fearless bike gang were seemingly everywhere.
When someone was shot or robbed in this city of 16 million, where murder is relatively rare, police pointed to the same suspect: Bunty, the notorious gang leader who terrorized New Delhi from astride a motorcycle.
Bunty’s reign ended on Monday when he died in a pre-dawn shootout with police. Authorities trumpeted the news as a hard-fought victory over the city’s most wanted man, held responsible for stabbings, shootings, robberies and more.
PHOTO: AP
Police classified him as a “BC,” for Bad Character, the highest category of criminal — and he was on a first-name basis with the media. One leading newspaper announced his demise simply: “Bunty shot.”
Santosh Desai, a media critic and Times of India columnist said: “It’s almost like he’s a quasi-mythical figure. It’s blurring into lore.”
India has a long history of celebrating bandits as folk heroes and their legends often reflect the society they stalk.
With a youthful nickname, a passion for flashy motorcycles and an ambition to rise high, Bunty — whose real name was Om Prakash — was a criminal for the new India.
A generation ago, the ubiquitous vehicles crowding Indian streets were clunky Ambassadors, cars that never won any style contests.
The loosening of the economy in 1991 brought a flood of foreign vehicles — including the motorcycles favored by Bunty.
His exploits were straight out of the motorcycle robbery films Dhoom and its sequel, perhaps lending a patina of Bollywood glitz to his thuggery.
Police said he roamed the streets, forcing motorcyclists to part with their wallets and their bikes, quick to shoot those who hesitated. Since his latest crime wave began in April, he stole at least seven motorcycles and killed at least five people, police said.
His mystique grew along with his brutal record, which included four murders in one week last month.
Police say he harbored dreams of rising above street robberies and becoming a crime boss. Authorities said they recovered true crime magazines at his hideout, as well as clippings he kept about himself, English-language exercise books, a telephone directory written in code and a cache of guns.
“He was ambitious and street-smart,” said senior police official H.G.S. Dhaliwal, the Press Trust of India reported. “He wanted to become an English-speaking don.”
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS