3 notorious gangsters nabbed

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 20

The police claim to have arrested three notorious gangsters involved in heinous criminal activities, including robbery, snatching and attempt-to-murder cases. All accused are school dropouts in the age group of 25 to 30 years and belong to marginal families with agricultural background.

SSP Swapan Sharma said the accused were identified as Sandeep Singh of Bhairupa village in Bathinda, Gurdeep Singh Dal Singhwala of Moga and Satwant Singh of Manuke village of Muktsar.

Sandeep is facing five criminal charges in various cases registered against him at police stations of Phul, Barnala, Faridkot and Bathinda while Gurdeep is also facing four similar cases at Faridkot and Bathinda police stations.

Police personnel investigating the matter said despite their criminal activities, such criminals manage to obtain bail within seven to eight months and once they are out, they again indulge in criminal activities and harass informers and secret agents of the police.

The SSP said the trio was first spotted by the police on a secret information near Bhai Ghanaiya Chowk at the Goniana road on November 10.

“Informers told the police that gangsters, equipped with firearms, were consuming drugs and preparing to loot a bank or a petrol station,” the SSP said.

The informer gave specific clues that robbers were roaming in a black Tata Xenon vehicle.

“The accused, however, managed to give a slip to the police team but vital credentials about their vehicle helped in nabbing them second time on November 19 from the Nathana-Jandwala-Gobindpura T-Point,” Swapan said.

He also claimed that focused attention of SP (H) Nanak Singh and ASP (H) Charanjit Chahal proved instrumental in arresting them.

Besides recovery of Tata Xenon, police also claimed to have recovered a kaapa (machete), two country made .315 bore pistols with four live cartridges and a Volkswagen Polo car from the arrested gangsters.

“Though a thorough investigation is yet to be done as two-day police remand is obtained from the court, initial investigation reveals that they were providing shelter to hardcore criminals,” the SSP said.

Recorded telephonic conversations obtained from the accused reveals that they were in touch with kingpins of notorious gangsters lodged in the high-security Nabha Jail. Meanwhile, the SSP denied commenting over the sorry state of affairs prevailing in the Nabha jail as they obtained the telephonic conversations of the accused.

He, however, pointed out that the arrested accused were in touch with Tirath Dhilwan — an absconder and Neet Deol of Moga — in Nabha jail; Jagseer Singh Seera — out of jail on bail and Jaipal of Ferozepur — another absconder. The arrested accused were dancing to the tuneof these men who are involved in more criminal activities and are operating their activities from the jail.

Police officials said they would take strict action against the accused to keep them behind the bars for at least a couple of months for their crimes.