Financier arrested for councillor’s murder

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 21

Three weeks after the sensational killing of sitting Congress councillor Gurdeep Singh Pehalwan by armed assailants, the police have arrested a financier, Ravneet Singh, alias Sonu Mota, in this connection.

A senior police officer, wishing not to be named, confirmed the development. He said Sonu Mota’s role in the murder was being ascertained. The police have got him on remand for five days.

Gurdeep’s family had accused Mota of killing Pehalwan. According to allegations, Mota gave ‘supari’ (contract) to the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang for murdering the councillor. Bhagwanpuria is currently lodged in a jail.

The gangster had an enmity with Gurdeep as claimed in a Facebook post which had gone viral three days after the murder. The police official said his role was being looked into. Mota’s name figured in the FIR following the allegations of the deceased’s family members who had told the police that he had an enmity with Gurdeep.

It has been learnt that he was caught in Delhi. If the highly-placed police sources are to be believed, brother of gangster Amanpreet Rinka has also been arrested for sheltering gangsters.

Besides Bhagwanpuria, Mota and Rinka, the police have also booked Karan Masti, Shubham Singh, Arun Chhurimar, Angrej Singh, Bhupinder Singh, alias Sonu Kangla, and Bobby Malhotra. The police had got Bhagwanpuria, Sonu Kangla and Bobby on production warrant for interrogation and had claimed later that they had confessed to their role in the murder.

Gurdeep was shot dead at the Gol Bagh Akhara located at the railway road on June 2 where he used to go daily. Three armed gangsters had gunned him down while the onlookers had told the police that more accomplices were standing a few metres away from the akhara.

Three days after the murder, a Facebook post claimed that he was killed to avenge the death of Sangam Malhotra, a gangster and accomplice of Bhagwanpuria who was shot dead in November 2014. The post indicated that the murder was the handiwork of Gurdeep. The post, which emerged from the Facebook account of Sangam Malhotra and Manak Kapurthala, claimed that Karan Masti, Arun Chhurimar, Rinka and Angrej had killed Pehalwan. The councillor was on the hit list of Bhagwanpuria and he had received threats from him in 2015. The police are trying to ascertain who uploaded the post.