'Please take me back to jail': Gangster who fled India on 'dunki' route begs to return; tortured and starved in Colombia

GURGAON: A gangster who jumped parole last year to escape to the US returned to India earlier this week after sending out desperate pleas for extraction, preferring a return to prison in his home state over horrors of the donkey route.

Sunil Sardhania, who was arrested by the Gurgaon police after he landed at Delhi's IGI Airport last Sunday, had thought he would join the ranks of gangsters like Goldy Brar, Rohit Godara and others, including his UK-based associate Deepak Nandal, who live abroad but operate here.


Sardhania (39), however, ran into trouble on the 'dunki' route - colloquial for treacherous paths illegal immigrants take to reach Europe and the US - that he embarked on from Dubai after flying out via Mumbai on a forged passport. Police sources said it was a torturous journey for the gangster, who was kidnapped twice in Colombia by 'agents' - people who facilitate the transit of illegals for money - because he could not pay them.

Gangster tortured, starved in Colombia

Sardhania was in a group of five men. There were at least three Indians in the group other than him, two from Punjab and one from Delhi. Between the two abductions, they were in the captivity of donkey agents in Colombia for around 45 days,” a police source told TOI.

During this time, they were threatened, tortured and starved. Sardhania only managed to secure his release after he sent word to Nandal about his plight. “Deepak Nandal contacted Rao Inderjeet Yadav, who paid Sardhania’s release money and helped arrange resources so he could go to theUS,” said the source. Inderjeet Yadav is a common associate of Nandal and Sardhania and is based in Dubai. The sources said Yadav paid $7,000 to bail Sardhania out.

By then, however, Donald Trump had been sworn in as president, the US was in crackdown mode on illegals — identifying and deporting them — and border patrolling was intense. “Those taking the donkey route would normally tear their Indian passports or dump them somewhere so that they could claim they were stateless or seek asylum. But that is no longer possible. Sardhania’s American dream got shattered,” said an investigator.

Having failed to make it across the Mexico border,Sardhania beat a retreat, spending some time in Nicaragua before reaching Costa Rica. He stayed in touch with Nandal and managed to run their gang in Haryana from there. This year, Nandal and Sardhania were named in three FIRs in Gurgaon alone for engineering the firing on rapper Fazilpuria’s car on Southern Peripheral Road on July 14, the contract killing on Aug 4 of property dealer Rohit Shokeen, who was sprayed with 15 bullets near Palm Hills in Sector 77, and the firing at real estate company MNR Buildmark’s office in Sector 45 on Sept 18.

After the murder of Shokeen, Sardhania also claimed credit for the hit on social media. But the man who wasterrorising targets in the city was living a miserable life himself, completely at the mercy of donkey agents who had his passport and who needed to keep paying for his own safety.

Compounding his problems was his recent fallout with Nandal, the sources said. With the man he could tap for bailouts no longer bankable, Sardhania scrounged for a way out. Finding none, a desperate Sardhania sent word back home that he was willing to return.

“He was disturbed that while his partners in crime Deepak Nandal and Rao Inderjeet Yadav were leading luxurious lives, he had no place to stay without fear,” said an investigator.