Shootout in Ferozepur, gangster held

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, July 11

The Ferozepur police today arrested a dreaded gangster, Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, following a shootout at Kohala village in Mallanwala block of this border district. Another gangster Ashok Kumar, alias Aman, escaped.

SSP Gaurav Garg said on an intelligence input regarding movement of some gangsters in the Mallanwala area, the police launched an operation around 2.30 am in which Gopi was nabbed with three weapons — a .12-bore gun, a .32-bore revolver and a country-made .315-bore rifle.

Gopi was wanted in over two dozen cases of murder and robbery, sources said. The operation was monitored by senior intelligence officials from the police headquarters in Chandigarh.

Sources said the police rounded up six suspects on the charge of aiding the gangsters. The gangsters were operating in various parts of the state such as Nawanshahr, Khanna, Moga and even outside Punjab as contract killers. They were involved in certain high-profile killings.

The six persons detained after the shootout included Rashpal Singh, Amanpreet, Aman and Neeta. Rashpal’s brother was arrested by the Kapurthala police in an encounter today. Aman, considered the right-hand man of Ashok Kumar and booked in an attempt-to-murder case, had come out of the jail on bail 15 days ago. In February, gangsters Gahiya Khan and Bagga Khan, along with their three accomplices, were also nabbed by the Ferozepur police from Makhu block after a shootout in which more than 100 rounds were fired by both sides.