CI busts arms smuggling racket, arrests two of Dony Bal gang

The Counter Intelligence (CI) wing of the Punjab Police has busted an arms smuggling network with the arrest of two operatives of the USA-based gangsters Balwinder Singh, alias Dony Bal, and Prabh Dasuwal, who were associates of Portugal-based criminal Manpreet Singh, alias Mannu Ghanshampuria.

The arrested suspects were identified as Aditya Kapoor, aka Makhan, a resident of the Lahori Gate area, and Ravinder Singh, a resident of Akarpura village in Gurdaspur. The police confiscated four weapons, including one sophisticated 9mm Glock pistol, two foreign-made .30 bore pistols and one .32 bore pistol along with five magazines and 14 live cartridges from their possession.

While sharing details, DGP Gaurav Yadav said acting on specific intelligence inputs, the Counter Intelligence, Amritsar, laid a naka near cattle ground on the Mehta road. Officials of the wing signalled two motorcycle borne youth to stop at the naka, he said. During search, officials recovered arms and ammunition from the suspects, he said. Officials also impounded motorcycle of the suspects bearing registration number PB18Z5033, the DGP added.

“Aditya Kapoor has 12 criminal cases registered against him. He was working on the directions of USA-based criminals Balwinder Singh, aka Dony Bal, and Prabh Dasuwal. The latter are close associates of gangster Mannu Ghanshampuria, who is brother of gangster Gopi Ghanshampuria,” the DGP said.

The DGP further said these crime syndicates were rivals of the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria crime syndicate. They had received consignments of weapons arranged by Dony Bal and Mannu Ghanshampuria. They were hatching a conspiracy to commit some heinous crimes in the state on their directions, the DGP said.

It is pertinent to mention here that armed operatives of Canada-based gangster-turned terrorist Lakhbir Singh, alias Landa Harike, had recently killed a friend of Dony Bal at Sathiala village. Commission agent Gurdeep Singh, aka Gokha, was shot dead in broad daylight on October 24. The perpetrators of the crime were later nabbed by the Amritsar (Rural) police and the Tarn Taran police following brief encounters.

The police have registered a case at the State Special Operation Cell police station against the arrested suspects and initiated further probe.