Jewellery shop firing case cracked, 2 suspects land in police dragnet

The Ludhiana rural police claimed to have cracked the case in which two motorcyclists had opened fire at a jewellery shop, ‘Kanda Jewellers’, at Kamal Chowk, Jagraon, on July 28. The police arrested the two suspects and recovered a .32 bore revolver, two magazines and four cartridges from them.

As per the police, the preliminary questioning of the suspects led to the disclosures that after the targeted shooting, in which nobody suffered any bullet injury, the suspects had arranged a call from a foreign mobile number reportedly from the United Kingdom. The caller while posing himself as some gangster told the shop owner that he had sent his shooters for firing at his shop and if he would not give Rs 30 lakh as extortion money, he would get him killed. The caller even went on to say that he was aware about his house, daily routine and family members to intimidate him.

The suspects were identified as Gagandeep Singh, alias Ghaddu, a resident of Kothe Baggu, Jagraon, and Layakat Ali, a resident of Agwar Loppo in Jagraon.

Senior Superintendent of Police Ankur Gupta while addressing a press conference stated that that the suspects had done a recce before firing and chosen the target. They were not from any organised gang, rather they were petty criminals. Layakat is facing two cases of theft registered in the Nawanshahr police district while Gagandeep is facing a case of drug peddling registered against him at the Jagraon city police station in the past.

The SSP said besides the two arrested suspects, three more persons were identified who had connived with the shooters to extort money from the jeweller. The police would also nab them soon.

“After the firing incident, the suspects talked to their aide who might be abroad and made an extortion call to the jeweller from the foreign number and asked him to pay the huge amount, else their gang would harm him and his family. Since our teams were already on the job, we nabbed the two suspects and cracked the blind case,” Gupta said.

The SSP said now, the police would also inquire about how and from where the shooters managed to get the illegal weapon and cartridges.

He said the suspects had committed such an act first time and the police probe found that there was no organised gang behind it. Some miscreants just attempted to extort money.