8 of Rajiv Raja gang nabbed

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, October 12

The district police here today arrested eight members of the infamous Rajiv Raja gang. Narcotics, three cars, a scooter an4d firearms were recovered from the accused.

Senior police officials told this at a press conference here. The police had put up a naka near Dholwaha. A car that was indicated to stop at the naka tried to flee from the spot and attempted to run over the police party. During this time, the car went out of control and got stuck in the bushes.

A police party followed it and nabbed the driver and his three accomplices. They were identified as Amrit Singh, alias Amrut, a resident of Kundanpuri Ludhiana, Satnam Singh, alias Karodi, a resident of Langowal in Sangrur district, Jatinder Singh, alias Shuru, a resident of Ambgarh in Jalandhar district, and Shubham, alias Bamb, a resident of Ladowal in Jalandhar.

During interrogation, Satnam Singh, Amrit Singh and Shubham told the police that they were in contact with gangster Rajiv Raja of Ludhiana, who was currently in the Sangrur jail. They told that the contact of Satnam Singh had been locked in the jail in Sangrur and Raja was in touch with them by calling them from various mobile phones from the jail.

They told the police that Raja had told them that brothers of the sarpanch Satnam Singh, who was shot dead in Chandigarh, NRI Jung resident of Canada, Joti and Prince residents of Khurdan, had a deal with him to kill persons belonging to the opposite party. They had given the contract of Rs 35 lakh for it. Of this, the first installment of Rs 10 lakh was given to them.

The police said that out of these some lakhs were kept by Satnam, Shubham and Amrit, while the rest of the amount was taken by Raja’s men. After taking the murder contract, they came for a recce of the area. Their three accomplices Chetan Sharma, alias Chinu, a resident of Ludhiana, Hemank, a resident of Chandra Nagar, Ludhiana, Tajinder Singh, alias Honey, alias Bhinda, a resident of Sangrur, were also roaming in the area on a scooter separately.

The police then nabbed the accused from different areas and recovered a countrymade pistol, three live cartridges and a scooter from the accused Hemank. He informed the police that during the probe, it was discovered that Atinder Pal Singh, a resident of Dhadianyal, and Hardeep Singh, alias Dabu, were getting the recce done. The police then arrested the accused, Atinder Pal Singh, along with the car, from Bhikhowal. Accused Hardeep Singh was yet to be arrested. The accused would be produced in court and taken on remand.

There are 19 cases registered against Rajiv Raja in various police stations of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Two pistols, 19 cartridges, three cars, 435 gm of intoxicants and a scooter were recovered from the accused.