Punjab Police’s Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF), in a pan-India operation conducted in coordination with central agencies, on Friday arrested three key shooters of notorious gangster Sonu Khatri, who is a close associate of terrorist Harvinder Rinda.

The state Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav has identified the arrested shooters as Sukhmanjot Singh alias Sukhman Brar of New Deol Nagar in Jalandhar; Jaskaran Singh alias Jassi Lodhipur of village Lodhipur in SBS Nagar; and Jograj Singh alias Joga of village Pholriwal in Jalandhar. Police teams have also recovered three foreign-made sophisticated pistols of .32 bore from their possession, he added.

“In an intelligence-led operation, Police teams from AGTF Punjab under the overall supervision of ADGP Promod Ban have nabbed accused Sukhman Brar from Indo-Nepal Border, while he was attempting to escape to Nepal, and other two were arrested from Gurugram, Haryana,” said the DGP, while adding that trio arrested shooters were planning to prepare fake passports to escape abroad from Kathmandu, Nepal.

He said that all the arrested persons are involved in at least five murder cases including Makhan murder cases, which took place in Nawanshahr in March 2022, besides, five cases of other heinous crimes including attempt to murder, Arms Act, carjacking and extortion. “They were also involved in a broad day-light shootout at Metro Plaza in Zirakpur,” he added.

Sharing more details, AIG Sandeep Goel, who was leading the operation, said that preliminary investigations have revealed that arrested accused persons used to commit sensational crimes in the state of Punjab on the directions of gangster Sonu Khatri, and after committing the crime they used to take refuge in hideouts located in different parts of the country and in Nepal.

“It has also been revealed that hideouts were arranged by foreign handler Sonu Khatri, who also used to pay the shooters on a regular basis via hawala transactions,” he said, while adding that further investigations are on.