Delhi: 62-year-old criminal ‘Godmother’ arrested

Forty-five years after stepping into the criminal world, 62-year-old Basiran, popularly known as, “Mummy” has finally been nabbed by the Delhi police, reports NDTV. She was arrested from south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar after being wanted in a “contract killing” case for the past eight months.

Information from the police state that Basiran has a total of 113 cases which include murder, contract killing, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, robbery and bootlegging against her and her family members. The Sangam Vihar police station has nine cases alone registered against her.

62-year-old woman Basheeran alias mummy wanted in 113 criminal cases including murder, arrested from Delhi's Sangam Vihar on Aug 17. DCP South Romil Baniya y'day said, 'she was active in crime world for past 16 yrs & committed several crimes with help of her 8 sons in past 9 yrs' pic.twitter.com/MLFpcJFlq0

— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2018

“Basiran’s latest arrest is in connection with the contract killing case of 21-year-old Miraj in 2017. Her two sons are already in jail in the contract killing case,” said a police officer, who was a member of the team that arrested the gangster.

She also had control over three government borewells in Sangam Vihar from where her family was extracting water illegally and was selling it to local residents.

“Basiran and her gang members, mostly friends of her two jailed sons, control the three borewells and illegally sell water. They charge anywhere between Rs 600 and Rs 1,000 per month from each household,”  another police officer, pleading anonymity said.

Romil Baaniya, the Deputy Commissioner of police (south) said that Basiran was eluding the police for the past eight months in the Miraj murder case, where four other people including a woman named Munni Begam were detained by the police. Rahul Khan and Shamim Alias Gunga-Basiran’s two sons masterminded the entire crime while in jail.

It was in Sangam Vihar’s K-block jungle that Miraj’s decomposed body which had strangulation marks were found in September 2017.

Earlier in January this year, the case was solved when the police arrested a minor boy who went on to reveal that Miraj’s death was actually contracted killing put into effect by Basiran’s gang and her sons.

An investigator said, “Basiran took a contract of Rs 60,000 for Miraj’s murder from his step-sister Munni Begum, who wanted him to be killed because he had been eyeing her daughter.”

The 62-year-old Basiran was declared a serial offender in May after she had escaped the law and all her properties in Delhi were seized as per the court’s orders.

#Godmother of #crime in #SangamVihar ends up behind bars! #SouthDistrict @DelhiPolice has arrested Basiran one of the top five dreaded #women criminals in #Delhi. wanted in a murder case & absconding last 08 mnths. She & her sons are previously involved 113 #Criminal cases pic.twitter.com/UAx0pyQzUP

— DCP South Delhi (@DCPSouthDelhi) August 19, 2018

The police said that their main motive was to wear out Basiran psychologically and financially, to the point where she surrenders. “Our strategy worked and Basiran was caught when she reached Sangam Vihar to meet some people, including lawyers, to seek their help in getting her properties back,” the first police officer said.

DCP Baaniya made it clear that just like her son Shamim, Basiran and her family members would be booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for gaining wealth from criminal activities.

The officer said that Basiran, during the interrogation revealed that she had been aided by her relatives and hid in their homes in Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Delhi, Manipur and other areas in Uttar Pradesh.

She had married Malkhan Singh of Dholpur around 40 years ago after which the couple came to Delhi in the early 80s. They shifted to Sangam Vihar after living a decade in Govindpuri slums.

Said Baaniya, “With no source of income, Basiran entered the crime world and took to bootlegging in the late 90s. Thereafter, she never looked back and went further deeper into the crime world. She also motivated her sons to expand her criminal empire.”

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