Punjab Police arrest three Most Wanted gangsters, solve murder of former Sarpanch

Continuing with ir crackdown on criminal gangs and gangsters, Punjab Police have arrested seven accused, including three most wanted gangster-criminals, after an over two-month-long, 1,500 km chase that spanned four states, to solve a spate of heius crimes, including recent murder Gurdeep Singh, ex-Sarpanch of vill Umarpura in district Amritsar (Rural).

Giving details of meticulously planned and flawlessly executed intelligence-led operation, which covered states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, DGP Dinkar Gupta on Monday disclosed that trio were finally arrested from Sojat, District Pali, Rajasthan, on basis of a tip-off provided to Rajasthan Police by Punjab Police team. accused had been changing ir locations and creating various fake identities while being on run.

Coming close on heels of arrest, from Armenia, of ar ted gangster Buddha, se arrests showed that a large number of gangsters-criminals had moved out of Punjab  to or States as well as to foreign countries due to relentless and continued pressure from  Punjab Police and OCCU, said DGP.

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three most wanted criminals have been identified as Harman Bhullar r/o Umarpura, Amritsar (R), Balraj Singh @ Buri Basantkotia r/o Basantkot, Gurdaspur, and Harwinder Sandhu r/o Pandori Waraich, Amritsar (Rural). y were all members of a criminal gang operated by Pavittar Singh, a gangster-criminal w based in USA. 

police have so far seized one .30 bore Pistol, two .32 bore Pistols, one Springfield Rifle and 18 cartridges, 12 bore Gun with 40 live cartridges, two .315 bore Pistols, 2 cars (one i20 and one Swift), and 3 fake Aadhar Cards.

Pavittar Singh s/o Sikandar Singh r/o Chaure, PS Ghumaan Dist Gurdaspur is leading Chaura Madhra gang. Pavittar Singh is presently suspected to be in USA. Husandeep @ Husna s/o Harvinder Singh r/o Shahbad, PS Ranghar Nangal is one of close associates of Pavittar and, as per credible inputs, he is also living in USA. entire gang is involved in many cases of extortion, attempt to murder, murder, rioting etc, said DGP.

Harman Bhullar, Balraj Singh @ Buri and Harwinder Sandhu had arranged fake Aadhar Cards under names of Mangal Singh, Ram Dev and Mohinder Singh respectively. Harman Bhullar had also mand to get his fake Passport issued in name of Harman Singh from Regional Passport Office, Ambala, with a fake address of Pehowa, Kurukshetra, Haryana.

Gurdeep Singh, (55), former Sarpanch of vill Umarpura, was shot dead by a group of armed assailants led by Harman Bhullar, when he was returning home from a vill Gurudwara on January 1, 2020. Harwinder Sandhu, a member of Pavittar Gang, had also claimed responsibility for killing of Mandeep Singh, 26, of Vill Pandori Waraich, Amritsar (Rural), due to personal enmity.

Besides se two murders, accused were also wanted in recent attempt to murder case in which y fired gunshots, injuring one Triptpal Singh in vember 2019 in vill Jijayani in Amritsar (Rural), said DGP. accused, who had been on run for past several months, had flaunted ir involvement in se cases on ir social media posts. 

According to DGP, Harman Bhullar was involved in as many as 8 criminal cases while Balraj Singh @ Buri Basantkotia was wanted in 10 criminal cases and Harwinder Sandhu in 3 criminal cases. Most of se cases related to serious offences, such as murder, attempt to murder, abduction/kidnapping, rioting, Arms Act etc. 

Giving details of joint operation, led by Bikramjit Singh Brar, DSP OCCU, under supervision of Vikram Jeet Duggal, SSP Amritsar (Rural), DGP said Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, AIG, Intelligence (OCCU) and RN Dhoke, ADGP Internal Security, were part of teams, which were drawn from OCCU, SAS Nagar and Amritsar Rural districts. entire operation was personally monitored by DGP. 

chase, which started from  Amritsar-Chandigarh on January 28, culminated successfully on March 1, as a result of perfect inter-state coordination and cooperation between police forces of four states, said Gupta, pointing out that Constable Nasir Mohammad of Uttarakhand Police, in fact, travelled all way from Rudrapur to Rajasthan during operation.

DGP said he had personally taken DGP Uttrakhand on board before launch of operation from Rudrapur in Uttrakhand. Later, senior officers of UP Police and Rajasthan Police were also taken in loop.  All se teams first moved to Rudrapur, Uttarakhand and started chasing criminals, who were travelling in an i20 car . UK 04T 9229, covering various national highways, Toll Plazas, small vill roads, etc.  y kept moving continuously, criss-crossing various roads in remote and interiors of different small towns and vills of various districts of Uttarakhand, UP and Rajasthan. 

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It was only in early morning of March 01, 2020, that ir movement again came to tice in Rajasthan in coordination with Highway authorities and CCTV foot. Chase teams of Punjab Police and SOG Teams of Rajasthan Police were put on high alert. Finally, after one of longest chases in policing covering a distance of over 1,500 km, trio was apprehended from Sojat, Dist Pali with help of Rajasthan Police.  

breakthrough regarding movement of accused came when Ranbir Singh @ Lucky r/o Vill. Teeda, PS Mullanpur, SAS Nagar who was admitted in PGIMER, Chandigarh on Feb. 23, 2020, had accidentally shot himself with a countrymade weapon and subsequent investigations led to revelation of weapon being provided by Harman Bhullar and his associate through one Harry Bajwa r/o Sec. 40, Chandigarh. Harry Bajwa had provided a safe house to accused in Sec. 40, Chandigarh, where accused have been staying for last two months. Harry has also been arrested.

arrest of se three criminals furr led to arrest, on Monday morning from Uttrakhand, of two of ir associates Gurpreet Singh @ Gopi s/o Avtar Singh r/o Tarapur, Dist Meerut, UP and Gurwinder Singh @ Khalsa s/o Lakhwinder Singh r/o Bazpur, Uttarakhand today. Both of m are also involved in various crimes, such as murder, attempt to murder, arms act, etc.

Names of Arrested persons
S. . Name
Address
1. Harman Bhullar
Umarpura, Amritsar (Rural)
2. Balraj Singh @ Buri Basantkotia
Basantkot, Gurdaspur
3. Harwinder Sandhu
Pandori Waraich, Amritsar Rural
4. Gurpreet Singh @ Gopi
Tarapur, Meerut, UP
5. Gurwinder Singh @ Khalsa
Bazpur, Uttarakhand
6. Arwinder Singh @ Harry Bajwa
Sec 40, Chandigarh
7. Balbir Singh @ Bira
Teeda, SAS Nagar

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