Gangster Nehra was active in student politics

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, June 19

Gangster Sampat Nehra, who freed undertrial Deepak Kumar from police custody on June 17, was active in student politics at Panjab University.

He was also the campus chairman of the Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU). Nehra, who studied in DAV College, Sector 10, was close to Lawrence Bishnoi, a former leader of SOPU, who was also involved in cases of carjacking and extortion in Punjab.

A senior leader of SOPU said a few years ago, Nehra was the party’s important face and was given important duties during the student council elections. But after he got involved in criminal activities, the association ended. Nehra was called ‘Ravinder Jadeja’ as he resembles the cricketer a lot.

Nehra’s Facebook profile also reveals that he loves pistols and guns. He has posed a number of pictures with weapons.

The Panchkula police had identified gangster Sampat Nehra, wanted by the Punjab Police and the Chandigarh Police, for freeing Deepak from police custody. His face was identified in the CCTV footage. In the CCTV footage of the hospital, Sampat Nehra was seen hitting constable Rakesh.

Nehra, a national-level decathlon silver medallist and son of an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the Chandigarh Police, freed Deepak for “supari killing” of a Punjabi film director.

Nehra, a resident of the Police Lines, Sector 26, Chandigarh, is wanted by the Patiala police in a carjacking case that took place last year.

He is also wanted in an attempt-to-murder case in Chandigarh. On December 30, 2016, an attempt-to-murder case was registered after a Kharar resident alleged that Nehra and his friends attacked him with rods, sticks and also fired a bullet at him in Sector 27. A senior Panchkula police official said Sampat Nehra was the key member of Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The Lawrence Bishnoi gang is behind the escape of Deepak Kumar from police custody. “The gang is active in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Rajasthan,” he added.