Gangster Gounder, aides killed

Aman Sood

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Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 27

Eluding the police for over a year, notorious gangster and Nabha jailbreak mastermind Vicky Gounder and his accomplice Prema Lahoria were killed in a fierce encounter in Sriganganagar’s Pakki village on the Rajasthan-Punjab border on Friday evening. In the 16-minute gunfight, 40 shots were fired. Sub-Inspector Balwinder Singh and ASI Kirpal Singh were grievously injured. 

Gounder carried a reward of Rs 7 lakh on his head. 

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A 35-member Punjab Police team led by AIG (Organised Crime Control Unit) Gurmeet Chauhan and Inspector Bikramjit Brar of the CIA, Rajpura, zeroed in on a ‘dhani’ (house in the fields) owned by Lakhwinder Singh. “As Lakwinder stepped out at 4.30 pm, we took him away for questioning. As soon as he confirmed that Gounder, Lahoria and their accomplice were hiding inside, we got going,” said Chauhan.

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Five police teams were formed, DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta said. “Three  kept a watch on the three entrances, one was stationed outside to cover the escape route and another on the roof of the house. Lahoria was the first to come out. Sensing trouble, he tried to scale a wall to flee, firing at the policemen. He was shot.” 

Gounder tried to flee through the main door along with an aide, firing indiscriminately and injuring two policemen. “Both were shot. Gounder died on the spot and an aide in hospital,” the DGP said. 

The police obtained vital clues after Inderjit Sandhu was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport in December last. “We found some diaries in which he had mentioned phone numbers in code language. On December 27, we got a tipoff that the suspects had been seen in Abohar moving in a Swift Dzire car with a Haryana number plate (which was later found to be fake). We tracked the vehicle and zeroed in on the hideout,” explained Chauhan. 

Gounder alias Harjinder Bhullar (27) alias Jinder, who belonged to Sarawan Bodla village in Lambi, Bathinda, had fled the maximum-security Nabha jail on November 27, 2016. He was the prime accused in  gangster Sukha Kahlwan’s killing.

Later in the evening, DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta said three pistols — two of .32 bore and one of .30 bore — and a large quantity of ammunition were found at the encounter site, besides cellphones and dongles used for communication. Gounder was using the social media to issue threats to rival gangs and police officers. He was using multiple Facebook accounts operated through accomplices in various countries, including the Gulf nations, Cyprus and Germany, DGP Dinkar said, adding that the most followed account had more than one lakh followers and collectively Gounder had 4-5 lakh followers.

Prem Singh alias Prema Lahoria, another ‘A’ category gangster, carried a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head. 

(With inputs by Raj Sadosh in Abohar)

Rajasthan SIT 

Abohar: The Rajasthan Police have decided to constitute a SIT to probe the encounter. Forensic experts from Bikaner have reportedly inspected the encounter site. Besides, Sriganganagar District Collector Gyana Ram has asked SDM Yash Pal Ahuja to hold an inquiry..

CHEQUERED PAST

• Vicky Gounder, along with Gurpreet Singh Sekhon, Kulpreet Singh Neeta Deol and Amandeep Dhotian, had escaped with KLF’s Harminder Singh Mintoo and another ‘terrorist’ Kashmir Singh from Punjab’s Nabha jail in November 2016
• Sekhon, Deol, Dhotian and Mintoo were re-arrested, but Gounder and Kashmir remained at large
• Gounder had plotted the murder of gangster-turned-politician Jaswinder Rocky of Fazilka while in jail. Rocky, who had contested against BJP’s Surjit Jyani in 2012, was murdered in 2016 
• Gounder had won three gold, two silver medals in discus throw at national level. He joined an academy in Jalandhar for training where he got involved in petty fights and left