Acting on a tip-off, the Special Task Force (STF), Uttarakhand, arrested four hardcore criminals from Dehradun-Mussoorie Ring Road at Jogiwala on Wednesday. The criminals have been identified as Naveen alias Navneet Verma, resident of Jwalapur (Haridwar); Ajay Kumar Batar alias Akshat, native of Chaisan, Shamli (Uttar Pradesh); Ankit Kumar Khokhar, native of Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh) and Ashish Raman alias Cheenu hailing from Roorkee and currently living at Chukkhuwala in Dehradun. The STF recovered two .315 bore country made pistols, four cartridges and two bikes from their possession.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, the STF senior superintendent of police P Renuka Devi said that team had received a tip off about four criminals reportedly roaming in the city with the intention of targeting wedding points near Jogiwala.
Acting on the tip-off, the police succeeded in arresting the criminals before they could commit the crime intended, she added.
The STF SSP said that interrogation of the men revealed that the criminals were committing crimes in various parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand after receiving directions from hardcore- criminal Sachin Khokhar who is under judicial custody in Pauri jail.
The process of registering a case under appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code against arrested four accused was on in Nehru Colony Police Station at the time of this report being filed. She further said that the nabbed men had stated under interrogation that on the direction of hardcore criminal Sachin Khokhar, they had hatched a plan to commit crimes at wedding points, located along the Dehradun-Mussoorie ring road. Khokhar had promised to pay them large sums after they completed the planned crimes.
The men caught by the police were found to have a criminal record. In the past, Naveen alias Navneet Verma had been sent to jail in connection with murder and loot cases reported in Patelnagar police station and a theft case in Clement Town Police Station while Ashish had been sent to jail in connection with theft case reported in Kotwali police station. The STF SSP announced a cash reward of Rs 2,500 for the team that succeeded in nabbing the criminals. Team members have also been directed to review the history sheet of the two other criminals.
It should be mentioned here that earlier, the STF SSP had acted on the tip off and formed teams which were led by sub-inspector Tushar Bora, sub-inspector Santosh Shah and sub-inspector Nand Kishor Bhatt with constables -Sandesh Yadav, Deepak Bhandari, Mahendra Negi, Brijendra Chauhan, Kailash Nyal, Anant Kumar, lokendra Kumar, Sanjay Kumar and Mohan Aswal being included in the teams.