Sonepat police nabs 4 for ‘contract killings’ in Punjab on direction of banned terror groups

Tribune News Service

Mukesh Tandon

Sonepat, February 19

With the arrest of four persons, the Sonepat police on Saturday claimed to have busted a gang which was involved in ‘contract killings’ in Punjab on the directions of the banned terrorist group handlers of ‘Khalistan Tiger Force’ (KTF) and ‘International Sikh Youth Federation’ (ISYF).

The CIA unit of the district police recovered an AK-47 rifle, 49 rounds of AK, three foreign-made pistols and cartridges from the possession of the accused.

Besides, teams of Punjab Police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with other intelligence agencies arrived at Sonepat to interrogate the accused.

Three accused arrested have been identified as Sagar alias Binni, Sunil alias Pehalwan and Jatin of Juan village who were involved in a murder case in Punjab. Later in the evening, the police also nabbed their one more associate Surender alias Sonu from Rajpur village of the district. Two pistols were recovered from his possession.

Sonepat Superintendent of Police Rahul Sharma said in a press conference that, “We received a tip-off from the Punjab police that some youths of Sonepat district have a relations with terrorists – Gurjant Singh alias Janta in Australlia, Arshdeep Singh Dala Canada, Hardeep Singh Nijjar Canada and Lakhbeer Singh Rod in Pakistan of banned terrorist groups KTF and ISYF through social media platforms.”

The terror groups used these youths for targeted killings to spread terror in Punjab, he said.

Sagar alias Binni is the kingpin of the gang and also has a criminal record in the district. He was the close associate of the notorious gangster Ravinder Pughthala, who was gunned down by police earlier.

Following the tip-off, Inspector Bijender Singh, CIA team incharge, raided the residence of Sagar alias Binni on Saturday and nabbed three accused and recovered automatic weapons from their possessions, the SP said.

The team recovered US-made Beretta pistol with two rounds from Sachin; Glock pistol with two rounds from Jatin and a Glock pistol made in Autria with one round recovered from Sagar. An AK-47 rifle with 49 rounds of cartridges was recovered from the room of Sagar, the SP said.

It was revealed during preliminary investigation that Sagar along with his two associates had murdered one Avtar Singh of Udhampur Kalan village of Morinda in Ropar district on December 8 on the direction of Arshdeep Singh Canada. They had planned to murder another person in Mohali after elections, he said.

The accused revealed that kingpin of the group revealed that he was in contract with Gurjant Singh alias Janta in Australlia, Arshdeep Singh alias Dala in Canada, Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and Lakhbeer Singh Rode in Pakistan through social media for a long time and they had provided them weapons to kill the targets in Punjab and they had sent lakhs of rupees into their accounts, the SP said.

A case has been registered under Sections 16, 17, 18 and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967; 120 B of IPC and 25,54,59 of Arms Act in Mohana police station.

The sources said prima facie it was revealed that the accused were in contact with the banned terrorist groups for the past 3-4 months and they were searching for such youths who have criminal records in the past in Haryana but not in the Punjab.

They were preparing such criminals for contract killings in Punjab on the directions of their handlers in Canada and Australia.

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