PUNJAB POLICE ARRESTS 7, INCLUDING 3 MOST WANTED GANGSTER-CRIMINALS

Chandigarh, March 2

Punjab Police have arrested seven accused, including three most wanted gangster-criminals, after a chase of  two-month. Giving details of the meticulously planned and flawlessly executed intelligence-led operation, which covered the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, DGP Dinkar Gupta today disclosed that the trio were finally arrested from Sojat, District Pali, Rajasthan, on the basis of a tip-off provided to Rajasthan Police by the Punjab Police team. The accused had been changing their locations and creating various fake identities while being on the run.

The police have so far seized one .30 bore Pistol, two .32 bore Pistols, one Springfield Rifle and 18 cartridges, 12 bore Gun with 40 live cartridges, two .315 bore Pistols, 2 cars (one i20 and one Swift), and 3 fake Aadhar Cards. The three most wanted criminals have been identified as Harman Bhullar r/o Umarpura, Amritsar (R), Balraj Singh @ Buri Basantkotia r/o Basantkot, Gurdaspur, and Harwinder Sandhu r/o Pandori Waraich, Amritsar (Rural). They were all members of a criminal gang operated by Pavittar Singh, a gangster-criminal now based in USA.

The entire gang is involved in many cases of extortion, attempt to murder, murder, rioting etc, said the DGP. Giving details of the joint operation, led by Bikramjit Singh Brar, DSP OCCU, under the supervision of Vikram Jeet Duggal, SSP Amritsar (Rural), the DGP said Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, AIG, Intelligence (OCCU) and RN Dhoke, ADGP Internal Security, were part of the teams, which were drawn from OCCU, SAS Nagar and Amritsar Rural districts. The entire operation was personally monitored by the DGP.

The chase, which started from  Amritsar-Chandigarh on January 28, culminated successfully on March 1, as a result of the perfect inter-state coordination and cooperation between the police forces of the four states, said Gupta, pointing out that Constable Nasir Mohammad of Uttarakhand Police, in fact, travelled all the way from Rudrapur to Rajasthan during the operation.

The DGP said he had personally taken DGP Uttrakhand on board before the launch of the operation from Rudrapur in Uttrakhand. Later, senior officers of the UP Police and Rajasthan Police were also taken in the loop.  All these teams first moved to Rudrapur, Uttarakhand and started chasing the criminals, who were travelling in an i20 car no. UK 04T 9229, covering various national highways, Toll Plazas, small village roads, etc.  They kept moving continuously, criss-crossing various roads in the remote and interiors of different small towns and villages of various districts of Uttarakhand, UP and Rajasthan.