Delhi Police nab 3 for Dera Sacha Sauda follower's killing in Punjab's Kotkapura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 11

The special cell of the Delhi Police today said it had nabbed three of the six identified shooters, who allegedly killed Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep Singh in Faridkot district of Punjab.

2 of them minors

• A team raids the police station area of Bakshiwala, 30 km from Patiala, at 3.30 am
• Nabs three of the six involved in the murder of Pardeep Singh in Faridkot
• One of the suspects identified as Jitender, two others are minors; all from Haryana

Police assurance

• A 45-member committee of Dera Sacha Sauda met Faridkot police and district administration over the killing
• Victim cremated on Friday evening after police assure family other accused will be arrested within 24 hours

Officials said earlier in the day, the Punjab Police Intelligence unit and the Delhi Police Counter-Intelligence unit had identified six persons, who were allegedly involved in Pardeep Singh’s killing. Following the identification, the forces carried out raids to apprehend them, they said.

A police team conducted raids in the police station area of Bakshiwala, about 30 km from Patiala city, at 3.30 am and nabbed three of the six involved in the murder of the dera follower, the officials said.

One of the suspects, Jitender, had been arrested, while two others were minors, the officials said. Jitender is also an accused in a double murder case in Ambala. Police sources said Jitender had engaged the minors and another youth for this targeted killing. Pardeep Singh (37), an accused in a 2015 sacrilege case, was shot dead on Thursday morning at his dairy shop in Kotkapura. His security man and another person sustained bullet injuries in the incident.

Noting that all apprehended persons belonged to Haryana — two of them from Rohtak and one from Bhiwani — an official of the special cell said, “There were six assailants; four from Haryana (the fourth absconding belongs to the Haryana module with an alias Hooda) and two from the Punjab module.”

The official said these different modules were being handled independently by Canada-based Goldy Brar, an associate of fugitive Harvinder Singh, alias Rinda, and jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

The teams are making further attempts to apprehend the absconding accused, he said.

The police said the CCTV footage showed that the accused had fired about 60 bullets at Pardeep Singh, who was also an accused in the Bargari sacrilege incident. Security personnel of Pardeep Singh also resorted to retaliatory firing, they said.

The Bargari sacrilege pertains to an incident reported in Faridkot in 2015 where parts of Guru Granth Sahib were found scattered in the village and an FIR was registered under Sections 295 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code at the Bajakhana police station.

Meanwhile, the Faridkot police have identified two assailants, who belong to Faridkot town. A team conducted a search on Friday morning at the houses of both suspects — Bhupinder Singh Goldy and Manpreet Singh, alias Money — and found them missing.

Family members claimed that they were missing for the past four days. Information gathered by the police revealed that both youths were drug addicts.

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