Uttarakhand police got a prized catch on Wednesday when a team of Special Task Force (STF) nabbed dreaded gangster Cheenu Pandit from near Assan Barrage in Vikasnagar. The police have recovered an AK 47 assault rifle from his possession. The dreaded gangster is involved in a number of cases involving murder and extortion.
It is learnt that the STF team led by R B Chamola got a tip -off on Tuesday night that some gangsters were expected to cross into the state capital. The STF and Vikasnagar police spotted a suspicious Black Swift car on wee hours of Wednesday near Assan barrage and signaled it to stop.
The occupants of the car attempted to run away, but the police team chased the vehicle. The police team was fired upon by the miscreants.
But police was able to surround the car and apprehend the dreaded Vinit Sharma alias Cheenu Pandit. However,
one of the accomplices of Pandit managed to flee from the spot.
later, in the day, the STF addressed a press conference and paraded its prized catch, Cheenu Pandit. Addressing newsmen, the senior superintendent of police (SSP) STF, P Renuka Devi said that a team of STF led by sub- inspector (SI) R B Chamola was constituted after the sensational murder of Akash Tyagi in Ganganahar area of Roorkee on May 6 this year. Tygai was a sharp shooter of notorious gangster Sunil Rathi and was out on a parole. Tyagi was shot dead by Cheenu Pandit to take revenge of murder of two of his companions in the sensational shoot- out side Roorkee Jail last year.
Renuka Devi said that the team of STF was on the trail of Pandit for the past two months and had raided many places in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand to nab him. She said that they would arrest the gangster’s accomplice Gaurav Chaudhary, a resident of Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar, soon.
The team recovered AK- 47 rifle, one magazine with 25 cartridges and a .32 bore pistol with four cartridges from the possession of Pandit. A case under sections of 307 IPC and section 25 Arms Act has been registered against Pandit who now has 29 cases tagged to him.
The STF SSP said that on initial interrogation Pandit revealed that he had purchased the assault rifle from one Vicky Tyagi of Muzzafarnagar in UP and was planning to eliminate his bête noir Sunil Rathi. The plan of Pandit was to attack Rathi when he would appear in courts here for hearing.
Renuka Devi said that STF constable lokendra Kumar played a laudable role in the arrest of Pandit. The SSP Dehradun, Sadnand Date was also present during the conference. He said that the State Director General Police (DGP) has declared a reward of Rs 20,000 for the team which apprehended the dreaded gangster.
The STF team comprised SI Chamola, SI N K Bhatt, Constables lokendra Kumar, Sandesh Yadav, Deepak Chandola, Anup Bhati and Kailash Nayal. The STF was assisted by Inspector Sandeep Negi, SI Dharmendra Rautela and Constables Navin Kohli and Gautam Singh of Kotwali police station Vikasnagar.