Police to tighten noose around those sheltering gangsters Toofan, Rayya

Tribune News Service

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, October 27

To tighten the noose around gangsters and notorious criminals, the Punjab Police have started taking action against those who were allegedly harbouring and providing shelter to them during their hiding.

In the latest development, the city police have written to the higher authorities for registering FIRs against those who sheltered and financially helped two gangsters, Mandeep Toofan and Manpreet Sing, alias Mani Rayya. The duo was arrested on September 16.

They were the main shooters of Lawrence Bishnoi-Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang. They were wanted not only for the sensational murder of another gangster Rana Kandowalia but had also made several bids earlier to kill Sidhu Moosewala.

The police had booked those who had sheltered them at the time of their arrest.

Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Investigations), revealed that the police have identified around five persons who had sheltered them since the sensational killing of another gangster Rana Kandowalia on August 4, 2021. He remained in hiding in Batala and Gurdaspur areas following the incident.

Among those whose names figured during the interrogation of Toofan and Mani Rayya for sheltering them included Satinder Singh of Sagarpura mohalla in Batala, Gurdaspur. He was currently in Canada while Satinder Taggar of Tanda, Hoshiarpur, is in Malaysia.

Others who provided shelter to them on the direction of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and his associates included Ranjit Singh of Dadujodh village, Karan of Bhikhowal in Batala and Harjinder Singh of Panj Garaiyan.

Facing trial in several cases

As per police records, Toofan (24) has been facing seven criminal cases, of which he is facing trial in four and declared absconding in three cases. He was declared a proclaimed offender in two cases and was also involved in the daylight murder of councillor Gurdeep Pehalwan in Amritsar besides being one of the prime suspects in the murder of gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria’s wife Harsimran Kaur. He was also involved in the dacoity of 11-kg gold from Sarafa Bazaar of Amritsar in 2019. Mandeep Toofan was the main shooter involved in the murder of rival gangster Fauji in 2020. He was also named as one of the main accused in the murder of Satu, a wine contractor of Fatehgarh Churian in 2021.

Mani Rayya (30) has been facing 18 criminal cases, of which he is facing trial in seven and is wanted in four criminal cases. He was convicted in three cases and acquitted in four. Mani was involved in the 2016 gang war in Tarn Taran between Harry, Bambiha and Jaggu group. He had escaped from police custody in Central Jail, Hoshiarpur and also aided another gangster Akul Khatri in escaping from custody by injuring police personnel in SBS Nagar in 2016. He extorted money from a cloth merchant of Baba Bakala in 2022 and had also snatched a car at gunpoint from Rayya.

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