‘Cobra Gang’ resurfaces
From Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR, Oct 8 — The notorious 'Cobra Gang' having some police officials on its rolls is suspected to have resurfaced after a gap of decade.

The gang was quite active in late eighties and early nineties. The members of this gang, including some low-ranking police officials were involved in a number of crimes including extortions, killings and lootings in those days. However, the Amritsar police feels that the gang suspected to have been re-organised which has committed a number of crimes in the past about one year. The police has already arrested two sub-inspectors, two head constables and a constable who were allegedly members of 'Cobra Gang'. However, leader of the gang which had indulged in killings and extortion cases is still at large.

According to official information available with The Tribune, the members of the 'Cobra Gang' are available for any crime including killings on 'hired basis.'

Mr Parampal Singh Sidhu, district police chief when contacted said that the police had launched a massive manhunt to arrest the leader of the 'Cobra Gang'.

A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity told The Tribune that the members of 'Cobra Gang' had been making threatening calls to SHOs concerned against making any raid to "harass" their family members.

One of the members even threatened to 'fix' the responsibility of an SHO if his wife suffered heart attack in the custody of police. The senior police officer added that some members of the 'Cobra Gang' who had committed crime while on bail had also filed a number of cases against the police officials for taking action against them.

News about the reorganisation of 'Cobra Gang' came to light when a goldsmith was killed by a 'hired' killer. The killer was hired by the relatives of the goldsmith. A victim, Paramjit Singh (a goldsmith) told this correspondent that the members of 'Cobra Gang' were hired by his own relatives on August 8 — the Rakhi day to liquidate him along with his brother-in-law while going to catch a Mathura-bound train. In this incident this brother-in-law Kulwant Singh (55) was killed and the alleged culprits took away about three kg jewellery while fleeing. It is interesting, the relatives of the deceased remained with the family while lodging report with the police. However, on suspicion the police arrested two relatives of the deceased. At the time of interrogation, they confessed that they had hired members of 'Cobra Gang" to commit this crime.

The police suspects that most of the crimes committed in the past one and half years were committed by members of 'Cobra Gang'. However, after the arrest of some its members including two sub inspectors, head constables etc the crime graph has come down. However, the leader of the gang and other active members are still at large, the police says.