Family was aware of Masih’s crimes, claims Mohali SSP

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, July 16

City SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal on Monday refuted the claim that slain ‘gangster’ Samuel Masih, alias Sunny, was innocent. The SSP alleged that his family was well aware of his criminal activities.

A police team from Himachal Pradesh had conducted a raid at his house at Deedowal village in Gurdaspur last week, he claimed.

The SSP said: “Sunny was a proclaimed offender in a case registered against him under Sections 379, 411 IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act at Nagreta police station in Kangra in 2014. Similar raids had also been conducted earlier by the HP cops.”

Sunny was gunned down by the Mohali police in an encounter at Naina Devi on Saturday. His family has termed it a fake encounter and sought a CBI probe into it.

Chahal said they never intended to open fire first. “The cops did it in self-defence. More than 10 shots were fired in all. As many as seven shots were fired by the criminals, while the police fired just three shots,” he claimed.

The police have recovered two .30 bore Chinese mousers from the accused at Naina Devi. “These types of firearms are highly sophisticated and were used by extremists during the militancy period in Punjab. We will investigate the source of these weapons,” said Mohali SP (Detective) Harbir Singh Atwal.

Sunny’s accomplices Amarpreet Singh and Goldy Masih are in custody of the Bilaspur police.