Makoka 315: Trigger-happy teens strike terror in NE Delhi

He was just 13 and living on the snaking streets of northeast Delhi when he picked up a gun and killed a gym trainer in cold blood in 2020.

- Hemani Bhandari

He wasn't alone—two other minors accompanied him that day, united in their first taste of infamy. Four years on, the boy has amassed nine criminal cases. Four of them are murders.

And he's unapologetic. Brash, even. He flaunts his crimes on Instagram for an audience of thousands. His feed brims with bravado, showcasing weapons, taunts and an unsettling confidence.

Now 17, the boy is a core member of the infamous "Makoka 315" gang—a chilling assembly of minors that has unleashed terror in northeast Delhi. They revel in violence—shootings, stabbings, and killings—and flaunt their exploits online.

The gang's name is a nod to the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, also known as MCOCA, a law meant to crush criminal syndicates. The "315" refers to the bore of the crude pistols they wield with unnerving ease, says a Delhi Police head constable tracking the gang and working to dismantle their functioning.

Their crimes have cast shadows over northeast Delhi: a shooting at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, the November 9 murder of a 24-year-old in Kabir Nagar, a stabbing in Jafrabad, and countless firings in crowded neighbourhoods.

They frequently boast of their crimes on social media and post videos of themselves going to observation homes and appearing in courts.

HT spoke to a 16-year-old member of Makoka 315 on an open street.

Dressed in blue jeans and a red shirt with the words "Gangsta" emblazoned unsubtly across, the boy, who asked not to be named, screamed languidly. He boasted of the three murder cases against him with disinterest.

"Yes, we do it (crime). We go to jail and come back in a few months. What's the worry?" he said, scrolling through his phone.

The minor declined to reveal where the gang gets its weapons. "I can't share such details with you".