Delhi Ex Top Cop, Whose Book Inspired Netflix Show, Recounts Kachcha-Baniyan Gang

It was the early 1990s, and the pressure to nab them was tremendous, recalls former Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar whose book forms the basis of season two of the Netflix show "Delhi Crime".

The gang of thieves, dressed mostly in their underwear, earning them the quirky sobriquet 'kachcha baniyan gang', would strike on moonless nights, robbing posh homes and killing their inmates in their sleep.

It was the early 1990s, and the pressure to nab them was tremendous, recalls former Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar whose book forms the basis of season two of the Netflix show "Delhi Crime". At the time, Mr Kumar was deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in south Delhi.

"During 1990 and 1991, there were a spate of house dacoities with murder in which people would break into homes and kill every inmate in their sleep. Then they would ransack the house in peace and take away all the valuables," Mr Kumar told PTI "It took us three months to nab the culprits. Since then, no such crimes have taken place in Delhi," Mr Kumar added.

As interest in the operations of the gang rekindles with the "Delhi Crime 2" which dropped on Netflix on Friday, Mr Kumar recapped the modus operandi of the criminals and the investigation that led to their capture. The primary aim was to loot, he said. But the members would also go on to kill residents using a sickle-like blunt weapon called 'daulatiya', Mr Kumar, the author of "Khaki Files", said.