Punjab Police’s State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) on Tuesday busted an extortion racket — backed by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi — with the arrest of its two key operatives after recovering two .32 bore pistols along with two live cartridges from their possession.
Those arrested have been identified as Tarlochan Singh alias Rahul Cheema of Chandigarh’s Sector 26; and Harish alias Harry alias Baba of Bupania village in Jhajjar district of Haryana.
SAS Nagar’s SSOC Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Ashwani Kapur said that they have received intel-based inputs that some members of Lawrence Bishnoi gang are making threatening calls to extort businessmen and influential persons of Punjab and adjoining states, and are also planning to execute target killing in the area.
“Acting swiftly, Police teams from SSOC SAS Nagar arrested accused Tarlochan Singh after recovering one pistol along with two live cartridges on Monday, followed by, the arrest of accused Harish alias Harry with one pistol on Tuesday,” said AIG Kapur.
The AIG said that preliminary investigations have revealed that both the arrested persons wanted to get fame and had made profiles on different social media platforms where they used to flaunt arms and ammunition to lure the youth and radicalize them to work for the gang. Accused persons used to offer high-profile lifestyles to innocent youth by promising them a good amount of money in return, he said.
He said that SSOC has procured three days of Police remand of both the accused persons after producing them in the local court and further investigations are on to track down and apprehend other members of the module.
A case FIR, dated September 11, 2023, has been registered under sections 25, 25(6) and 25(7) of the Arms Act and sections 384 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Police Station SSOC Mohali.
AGTF Arrests a Member of Sonu Khatri Gang from Jalandhar
Punjab Police’s Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) arrested one more gang member of notorious gangster Sonu Khatri from Jalandhar. Sharing the information, the state Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav on Tuesday said that the arrested accused has been identified as Sajan Gill alias Gabbar, a native of Fateh Nangal in Gurdaspur, presently residing at Khambra Colony in Jalandhar.
The development came four days after the AGTF, in a pan-India operation, had arrested three key shooters of gangster Sonu Khatri after recovering three foreign-made sophisticated pistols of .32 bore from their possession. Accused Sukhman Brar was arrested from Indo-Nepal border while he was attempting to escape to Nepal; while other two — identified as Jaskaran Singh alias Jassi and Jograj Singh alias Joga — were arrested from Gurugram. Gangster Sonu Khatri is a close associate of terrorist Harvinder Rinda.
DGP Yadav said that during preliminary investigations of three arrested shooters, it was revealed that the accused Sajan Gill alias Gabbar was involved in recent Metro Plaza Firing Incident at Zirakpur, as he provided technical as well as logistic support to them on the instructions of foreign-based handler Sonu Khatri.
Acting on the specific inputs, police teams of AGTF under the overall supervision of ADGP Promod Ban have arrested Sajan from Jalandhar.
Sharing more details, AIG Sandeep Goel, who was leading the operation, said that the arrested accused has a criminal history. Further investigations are on, he added.
