Nalagarh-Baddi ‘haven’ for gangsters

Arun Sharma

 Tribune News Service

 Ropar, June 13

 The densely populated area of Nalagarh-Baddi bordering Himachal Pradesh has not only proved a safe haven for notorious gangsters, but now has also become a hub of illegal arms supply.

Members of the gang headed by fugitive Dilpreet Singh Baba had their hideouts in the area till recently. Besides, the district police has zeroed in on at least one local resident who had been supplying firearms to such groups.

Sources in the Punjab police said many people in the Nalagarh-Baddi area help hide gangsters and procuring arms from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Uttarakhand.

 The area bordering the two states of Haryana and Punjab and Chandigarh has proved to be the most suitable point for gangsters, who have more than three dozens of passages to sneak into the other state or Chandigarh after committing the crime.

The Punjab police had confirmed that Dilpreet Singh and other members of his gang, including Harinder Singh Rinda and Jassi Kalwan, had been hiding in this area after murdering Des Raj Singh, a resident of Bahman Majra village, near Nurpur Bedi on April 7. Three days later, the gang killed the sarpanch of Khudran village in Hoshiarpur village outside a gurdwara in Sector 38 of Chandigarh.

 One of the gang members identified as Jassi Kalwan was, however, nabbed by the Ropar police when he was coming from Nalagarh on August 18.  Other gang members, however, got alerted after it and abandoned their hideouts in Nalagarh, said sources.

 Now, the police have zeroed in on Nalagarh-based arms suppliers. A senior police official confirmed that a group of youths who shot Davinder Singh of Leharrian village on June 2 at Bunga Sahib had procured two pistols and a revolver from a Nalagarh supplier.

The accused supplier, however, fled the town since three of the murder accused have been arrested. One of the accused staying at Nalagarh identified as Duggal is still at large.

In order to nail these gangsters, the police of the three states and Chandigarh have now decided to share intelligence and conduct search operation in coordination.

The strategy has started yielding results and the Ropar police was able to recover the car used by the accused of Davinder’s murder with the help of the Himachal Pradesh Police immediately after the crime on June 2. Similarly, the Haryana cops, who fled the spot after firing at an employee of the Himachal toll tax barrier, were nabbed by Ropar police after the HP police sounded an alert on June 3.

Baddi Deputy Superintendent of Police Khazana Ram denied that the area had proved to be a safe haven for gangsters. However, he confirmed that the Dilpreet gang used the area as hideout in the past due to pressure on them in Punjab. Now, the police of all bordering areas coordinate with each other and it was not easy for gangsters to operate in the area, he added.