Delhi's women crime bosses: How Lady Dons are dominating capital's underworld

The brutal stabbing of a 17-year-old boy in Delhi’s Seelampur on April 17 exposed a chilling shift in the capital’s criminal underworld. As three assailants attacked the teenager, a 19-year-old woman stood nearby, watching silently. She was Zikra Khan, a name now whispered in fear, the so-called “Lady Don” of Seelampur.

Once a fringe presence, women like Zikra have ascended to the forefront of organised crime in Delhi, according to police reports cited by The Tribune. No longer confined to the shadows, they now command drug cartels, orchestrate human trafficking rings and even order contract killings with ruthless efficiency.

“Women criminals can be colder than men. While male gangsters often act out of ego, these women focus solely on results,” a senior Delhi Police officer was cited by The Tribune as saying. Their paths to power vary - some rose from poverty through petty crime, while others inherited criminal empires after their partners were jailed or killed.

What distinguishes them, investigators say, is their ability to exploit both vulnerability and terror. They blend into crowds as unassuming women, only to re-emerge as the orchestrators of violence.

Zikra Khan’s recent chargesheet in the teenager’s murder adds to a growing dossier on Delhi’s female crime bosses. A former bouncer, she allegedly specialised in recruiting and training teenage assassins, cementing her reputation as one of the city’s most dangerous figures.

But she is not alone. Among the most feared is Sonu Panjaban, born Geeta Arora, who transformed from a gangster’s widow into the undisputed ruler of GB Road’s flesh trade. Her prostitution ring allegedly supplied minors to high-profile clients before multiple arrests under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and trafficking laws dismantled her operation.

Then there is Zoya Khan, who took over a sprawling drug empire after her husband, gangster Hashim Baba, was imprisoned in 2019. Police say she maintained the network until her arrest with 225 grams of heroin worth nearly Rs 1 crore.

Zikra Khan, meanwhile, is accused of recruiting and training teenage boys as contract killers, a practice that, according to The Tribune, has sown both fear and an unexpected form of infamy across communities. These women have become myths in their territories, names invoked by parents to frighten unruly children and whispered among rival crime syndicates with a mixture of dread and awe.