Sarpanch murder case: 6 arrested following encounter with police

Hoshiarpur, January 10

Six persons have been arrested after an encounter with the police last evening. The police was chasing the suspects involved in the murder of Dalit sarpanch Sandeep Kumar, alias Chhina (47), when the cross-firing took place. The sarpanch was gunned down on January 4 on the Tanda road while he was going for work.

The police recovered a .32 bore pistol, three live cartridges, one knife, a Swift car and two bikes from the possession of the suspects. Surinder Lamba, SSP, Hoshiarpur, said a team had been constituted under SP Sarabjit Singh Bahia with DSPs Parminder Singh, Talwinder Kumar and Balwinder Pal.

The SSP said the main suspect in the case was identified as Anoop Kumar, alias Vicky, of Asalpur village. One co-suspect Rohit Kumar, alias Suraj, had already been arrested.

The SSP said driver of Swift car (bearing registration No. PB-08-FB-3805) used in the crime was identified as Sanmant Khosla of Tanda. He said two other suspects identified as Gurpreet of Ghodewaha village and Mandeep Singh of Moha village had also been arrested.

The SSP said last evening, CIA staff Inspector Balwinder Pal had information about whereabouts of main suspect Anoop Kumar. He indicated him to stop on the Dholbaha-Dehra road while he was going on his bike. His bike slipped and he fired shots at police teams. “Our teams retaliated the fire and Anoop got injured. He is under treatment at the Civil Hospital. He has been booked under Sections 307, 353 and 186 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.”

The SSP said the police had also arrested Manpreet Singh and Karan Kumar who were with him.

The SSP said Anoop Kumar, Rohit Kumar, Karan Kumar, Gurpreet and Mandeep already had several FIRs lodged against them in police stations across Punjab.