Extortion racket run by gangster Harry Chatha busted, 7 arrested

Batala, November 4

The Batala police have busted an extortion racket being operated by gangster Harry Chatha. A key associate of the gangster, Navneet Singh, alias Nav, and six others have been arrested following an encounter with the police.

Exchange of fire between cops, suspects

• A police officer said after following secret inputs, a police team had stationed itself near Balpurian village on Friday evening
• The cops signalled a car to halt but the occupants, driven by suspect Navneet Singh, started indiscriminate firing at the policemen
• The cops fired in retaliation. A bullet hit Navneet in the leg. Dera Baba Nanak DSP Maninder Pal Singh also sustained an injury

SSP Ashwini Gotyal said the cops had been working on the case for the last several weeks. She added that the extortionists had targeted a local businessman on October 7 and a travel agency owner on October 28 after they refused to pay the money demanded from them by Chatha’s gang.

A police officer said after following secret inputs, a police team had stationed itself near Balpurian village yesterday evening. The cops signalled a car to halt but the occupants, led by Navneet Singh, started indiscriminate firing at the policemen. The cops fired back in retaliation. A bullet hit Navneet in the leg. Dera Baba Nanak DSP Maninder Pal Singh also sustained a minor injury.

SSP Gotyal said Navneet had been admitted to a government hospital. She added that DGP Gaurav Yadav was apprised of the developments once the encounter was over.

“The busting of the gang is the culmination of several weeks of hard work by my officers. Investigations are on and we expect to make more arrests,” the SSP added.

In addition to Navneet, the others who have been arrested have been identified as Gagandeep Singh, Balraj Singh, Prem Kumar, Harpreet Singh, Sukhraj Singh and Darshan Singh.

Four pistols, including one 9mm Glock pistol and three country-made ones, were recovered from the suspects. Two motorcycles and the car being driven by Navneet were impounded.

A case under Sections 307, 353 and 186 of the IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act has been registered at the Sadar police station.