Five associated with Lakhbir Singh Landa gang arrested after 7-hour search operation in Jalandhar village

Deepkamal Kaur

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Jalandhar, November 1

The teams of Jalandhar Rural Police and Delhi police on Tuesday carried out a joint search operation at Chak Jhandu village of Bhogpur leading to the arrest of five persons associated with gangster Lakhbir Singh Landa who is operating from Canada.

The gangsters were reportedly hiding in a vacant house in the village and the police teams went for a raid following a tip-off. As the police cordoned off the area around 6 am and were about to enter the house, a brief encounter took place. The six gangsters who were hiding here managed to escape from the backside of the house firing three rounds. The police teams also fired two shots in retaliation.

The gangsters hid in the sugarcane fields in the area. Using drones, long ropes, dog squads and other gadgets, the police managed to arrest five of the accused while the sixth person fled.

Those arrested include Sanjeev Kumar alias Nanu from Mallian village of Kartarpur in Jalandhar, Sandeep Kumar alias Sabi from Dhirpur village of Kartarpur, Gurbir Singh alias Ginni of Khurdpur village of Adampur, Manpreet alias Mann and Lovepreet Singh alias Chinni from Dhunakpur village of Chhehrata in Amritsar.

The accused have been arrested along with one Glock pistol, two 32 bore revolvers with three cartridges each, three used cartridges, four live cartridges and three motorcycles. They have been booked under Sections 307, 353, 186, 148 and 149 of the IPC and Sections 25/27/54/59 of the Arms Act at Bhogpur police station.

SSP Swarandeep Singh said Phillaur SHO Inspector Surinder Singh got a tip-off about the gangsters hiding in Bhogpur. “Even the Delhi police had information that some accused wanted by them in criminal cases were hiding here. So, a joint operation was carried out,” he said adding that efforts were on to nab even the sixth accused.

SP Sarabjit Singh Bahia said, “Our teams were after Manpreet and Lovepreet as their links were being probed in the seizure of assault rifles from Amritsar about a month ago. Their connection was also emerging in a similar operation carried out in Moga recently in which a Jalandhar-based cop of injured.”

The cops said Landa was reportedly preparing some teams of five-six gangsters by providing them weapons and readying them for extortion and target killings and those arrested were a part of one such team. Those arrested will be produced in the court tomorrow.