NEW DELHI: High-profile fugitive arms dealer Shahbaz Ansari has not only emerged as the kingpin of the network busted by the crime branch, but also as a major supplier of high-end weapons to criminal gangs in Delhi-NCR and neighbouring states, making him the target of an international manhunt.Shahbaz was arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Sidhu Moose Wala murder case in 2022 but jumped bail last year and absconded.He is now believed to be shuttling between Bangladesh and Dubai, working in tandem with ISI-linked entities and leveraging a family legacy of crime to fuel an international arms pipeline, said DCP (crime) Sanjeev Yadav.Investigations into the recent dismantling of his cross-border module have revealed a sophisticated logistics chain linking Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh to the heart of India’s capital.Shahbaz’s operations were rooted in Khurja, Bulandshahr, where his father, Qurban, originally built an illegal arms empire under the legitimate cover of an electrical switch factory. Over the years, the family residence was transformed into a fortified hub equipped with high-definition CCTV systems to monitor police movements, sources said.Following Qurban’s death during the Covid-19 pandemic, the mantle of the illegal enterprise passed on to his sons, Shahbaz and Nadeem, and his brother Rehan. The family enterprise specialised in sourcing dismantled weapons from Pakistan before smuggling them to India via Nepal.The extent of Shahbaz’s reach and resourcefulness was confirmed by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who revealed that shooters in his syndicate purchased the AK-47 used to assassinate singer Sidhu Moose Wala from the Ansari gang for around Rs 8 lakh. This revelation led NIA to conduct raids in Oct 2022, resulting in the arrest of Shahbaz’s uncle and brother. Shahbaz was eventually apprehended on Dec 8, 2022.He was lodged in a Delhi jail, but immediately began a calculated campaign to secure his release by trying to misguide the judiciary.In early 2023, Shahbaz attempted to gain freedom by claiming that his wife was pregnant. He managed to secure a brief five-day interim bail but failed to get it extended after he refused to share his live location with NIA.Later that year, he repeatedly moved applications citing his sister’s wedding and the absence of male members in his family, arguments that were struck down when NIA proved that several other male relatives were present at his home.In June 2025, he moved a plea in Patiala House Court, claiming his wife, Gulfisha, required urgent “spine decompression surgery” at MMG District Hospital in Ghaziabad. His persistence finally paid off as he secured a one-month release.However, within 48 hours of walking out of prison, Shahbaz’s phone was found switched off, and he vanished without a trace. Subsequent investigations by NIA exposed a staggering level of manipulation.The mobile number Shahbaz provided to the court belonged to an unsuspecting person in Assam, and the residence listed for his bail stay had been vacated days before his release. Further investigation at the hospital suggested a trail of forged medical records and altered registers, indicating a high level of coordination or collusion to facilitate his flight. Even Shahbaz’s bail surety confessed to being bribed and misled about the gravity of his crimes.
