Hashim Baba: Gangster behind Delhi hospital shooting faces 16 criminal cases

New Delhi: Jailed gangster Hashim Baba, who is suspected to be behind the shooting at a Delhi hospital that left a man dead, is facing 16 criminal cases, including murder and attempt to murder, a police officer said.

Hashim Baba, whose real name is Ashim, was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in 2019 and booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), according to a Delhi Police dossier.

The incarceration, however, has failed to deter Hashim Baba who has been running his crime syndicate from behind bars. Since 2019, he allegedly ordered five killings, including the GTB hospital shooting, from jail, the officer said.

He is facing 16 criminal cases, including murder, attempt to murder and dacoity in east Delhi's Jaffrabad, Bhajanpura and Welcome areas. The murders were executed by the members of Hashim Baba's gang on his orders, the officer said.

It is believed that Hashim Baba formed an alliance with gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, an accused in the murder of Punjabi singer-politician Sidhu Moosewala, inside Tihar jail.

Hashim Baba allegedly helped members of the Bishnoi gang in Delhi procure firearms, the officer said.

Bishnoi was lodged in Tihar jail till May 2023 when he was taken to Gujarat by the state's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in connection with a case of cross-border smuggling of drugs. He is currently lodged in the Sabarmati Central Prison in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad.

Before forming his own gang, Hashim Baba was a sharpshooter of the Nassir gang, active in trans-Yamuna areas. He and one Rashid alias Rashid Cablewala, were the henchmen of Nassir -- also lodged in Tihar jail.

Rashid is believed to have escaped to Dubai after jumping parole, police said.

Hashim Baba's name also cropped up in the 2016 shooting inside the Karkardooma court leading to the death of a Delhi Police constable.

Four juveniles had allegedly orchestrated the attack at the behest of Hashim Baba and Nassir to eliminate their arch-rival Chennu Pehalwan, while he was produced in the court.

Hashim Baba deliberately hires minors from their gangs, as they get bail easily despite being involved in heinous crimes.

The officer said the shooting at the GTB hospital was an outcome of a gang war. The shooters of Hashim Baba had come to eliminate Waseem, but they shot and killed Riyazuddin in a case of mistaken identity.

Riyazuddin, 32, was shot dead inside a ward of the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital here on July 14 in a case of mistaken identity, police said.

According to the officer, the gangs of Nassir and Chennu Pehalwan have been fighting to gain supremacy over the illegal betting and gambling business in the trans-Yamuna areas.

The gangwars in the area began establishing dominance in the cable TV business in the early 2000s. In the last two decades, however, it has shifted to the illegal drug trade and betting and gambling business.

Hashim Baba's first brush with the law was in 2007 when he was caught with an illegal firearm in the I P Estates area, according to the dossier.

According to a police officer, Hashim Baba was in class eight when he decided to quit his studies and began making slippers at a factory in northeast Delhi.

Soon he fell into the company of local criminals dealing drugs and running illegal betting rackets and became their sharpshooter, the officer said, adding Hashim Baba never hesitates to shoot.

Due to his long hair, the gang members started calling him 'Baba' -- a nickname of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt who made long hair popular among men in the 1990s -- while Ashim got changed to Hashim as it was easy on the tongue, the officer said.

The dossier said due to his criminal activities in Delhi, Hashmi Baba's family members shifted base to Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh after 2010.