Cops on their toes to nab gangsters

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 26

Though the city police and intelligence agencies have been on their toes to arrest notorious gangsters, Gopi Ghanshampuria, Harry Chatha and his accomplices, they are yet to taste success.

“Information regarding their suspected hideouts pours in continuously and we verify each and every input,” said the SSP, Amritsar.

The two gangsters and their accomplices had recently kidnapped a doctor, Dr Munish Sharma, who runs a private hospital at Ajnala. He was freed after he paid Rs 7.50 lakh as ransom. They threatened Sharma of dire consequences in case he failed to hand over Rs 60 lakh as ransom to them.

Reliable sources said intelligence agencies including the Organized Crime Intelligence unit and the counter- intelligence were on their toes to arrest the culprits. Information was received that the accused were roaming in the border belt.

Police teams yesterday conducted raids in the Lopoke area after they received inputs regarding their suspected hideout there. The gangsters reportedly managed to dodge the police party. However, the police officials were tight-lipped over this.

The Gopi Ghanshampuria gang was an accomplice of Vickey Gounder, who escaped during the Nabha jail break incident and recently killed three members of a rival gang at Gurdaspur. The police have launched a manhunt to nab them.

Sources said the police and intelligence officials were also investigating from where they were getting the finances for their survival. The gangsters using social networking sites for communication were also posing a great difficulty for the Police Department.

“As these gangsters were communicating on WhatsApp and other social networking applications, it became difficult to trace their locations,” said a highly placed police official.