Mohali police bust gang of hardcore criminals, nail two

Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 22

The Mohali police today claimed to have busted a gang of notorious criminal Ravi Balachauria by arresting two of its members here.

The suspects have been identified as Arun Kumar, alias Mani, and Sandeep Kumar, alias Sandy.

The police claimed that on their information, the Gujarat Police arrested Ravi Balachauria there yesterday.

SP (Investigation) Harmandeep Hans said all members of the gang were hardcore criminals and involved in several cases of heinous crime, including murder, dacoity, robbery, carjacking etc. “The criminals in question have already been facing a number of cases at various police stations in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana,” said Hans. He added that the police have so far recovered three illegal firearms, as many as 17 live cartridges, a car, two mobile phones and 110 gram of heroin from the possession of Mani and Sandy.

The SP said Mani was arrested a few days ago from Phase 1 in Mohali. A case under appropriate sections of the NDPS Act and the Arms Act was registered against him at the Phase 1 police station on February 11.

“Sandy was arrested at the behest of Mani from the same area. During their interrogation, we came to know that both were members of a gang of notorious criminal Ravi Balachauria, who was wanted in several cases of heinous crime in several states,” said Hans, while adding that after getting some vital information of Balachauria’s hideouts in Gujarat, Mohali cops passed it to the Gujarat Police, who managed to arrest him yesterday.

Hans added that they were tracking Balachauria for the last few months after learning that he was residing in Noida with his wife and a son. “But he managed to give us a slip,” said the SP.

As per the police, Mani was booked in two murder cases, one in Una (Himachal Pradesh) and other in Garhshankar (Punjab).

“Balachauria, along with his accomplices, was involved in a case of dacoity of Rs 7.60 lakh at gunpoint at a Punjab National Bank branch in Phagwara last year. The gang was also involved in two cases of carjacking at gunpoint in Jagadhari (Haryana) and Aerocity (Mohali), said the police.

Mani was also declared a parole jumper in 2018 in the Una murder case.

SP Hans claimed that Mani and Sandy, along with their other accomplices, were hatching a conspiracy to commit two more serious crimes. “They were also planning with Balachauria and other gang members to release their friend Binny Gujjar from the police custody at gunpoint. Besides, they were planning to take revenge from JV and Karamveer Singh, who had murdered Gujjar’s father in 2011, by killing them,” claimed the police.

“We would soon procure production warrants of Balachauria to bring him here from Gujarat,” said the SP.