Gangster held after hot chase

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Batala, May 28

The Batala police today arrested category ‘A’ gangster Shubham and his accomplice Manpreet Singh Manna after a long chase in which several rounds of fire were exchanged between them.

Subham was involved in the murder of Amritsar municipal councillor Gurdeep Pehalwan in June last year.

Opinderjit Singh Ghuman, SSP, said the cops were hot on the trail of Shubham for the last several months. “He was spotted in Batala on a couple of occasions, but every time he managed to hoodwink us. Today, after receiving specific information that he would pass through the area, we set up four check posts on the Fatehgarh Churian road,” the SSP said.

“The gangster, who was driving a Hyundai i-20 car, was signalled to stop, but he sped away. Later, Shubham and Manna abandoned the car and snatched a motorcycle from a passerby. By this time, the control room had alerted the Fatehgarh Churian police following which a DSP, two SHOs and their team spotted the duo and chased them on the Fatehgarh Churian-Dera Baba Nanak road. As many as four police vehicles followed the gangsters for nearly 4 km. The gangsters kept firing at the police following which the latter retaliated,” he added.

The SSP said a police vehicle finally overtook the motorcycle and blocked its path. The gangsters again tried to flee towards the fields, but were overpowered by the cops who outnumbered them, he said.

A case under various sections of the IPC, including attempt to murder, has been registered at Fatehgarh Churian police station.

In October 2017, Shubham and another gangster Saraj Singh Sandhu had gunned down Hindu Sangharsh Sena leader Vipin Sharma in broad daylight in the Bharat Nagar locality of Amritsar.

A month before the murder of Vipal Sharma, Saraj and his accomplices had freed Shubham from police custody when they were taking him for a court hearing in Amritsar.