Eight Wanted criminals killed in 10 months

05 Feb 2018 3:37 PM | Crime
540 Report

On January 26 as the Republic Day celebrations were winding down, a Punjab Police team was still at work in a Rajasthan border village. It had surrounded a house and bullets were flying. In half an hour, a 16-month search for the state's most-wanted gangster was over. Harjinder Singh, better known was as Vicky Gounder, was dead and so was his aide, Prema Lahoriya.

"Excellent work by DGP Suresh Arora, DG Intelligence Dinkar Gupta and OCCU team, including AIG Gurmeet Singh and Inspector Vikram Brar. Proud of you boys," chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh tweeted that evening. The gang culture thriving in Punjab has been a concern not just for Singh but the police establishment as well.

But over the last one year, the tide seems to be turning. In the last 10 months, eight "most-wanted" gangsters have been killed and 27 arrested. The list of 650 criminals on the loose has been reduced to around 100. Police have also seized 189 vehicles, 97 weapons and ~1.7 crore in cash. "Out of the 38 category A (most wanted) and B gangsters, 21 have been either nabbed or killed in encounters in the past few months. We will get hold of a few more in the coming days," director general of police (intelligence) Dinkar Gupta said last week.

The success lies in the two-pronged strategy the state government adopted last year. Police officials met the families, asking them to prevail upon the gangsters to shun crime and give themselves up. On the other hand, they launched an all-out offensive. The crackdown had the desired effect, with dreaded gangsters such as Jaipal Singh Bhullar, Tirath Singh and Dilpreet Singh, alias Rinda, forced into hiding and putting their activities on hold.Three gangsters had surrendered within days of Gounder's death and another five were arrested. "The free hand given by the chief minister has paid off. These criminals must understand that a state never grows old, but the age of crime and criminals is limited. Our crackdown will continue," director general of police Suresh Arora said.

Gun culture is not new to Punjab, which flourished after the green revolution in the 1960s. The riches added to the fascination for gun that was firmly established in popular culture - there is a long list of songs that celebrates the weapon. The dark days of terrorism, too, kept the guns alive. But it was with the real estate boom, which started in 2000, that Punjab saw the emergence of these gangsters, most of whom came from well-off families. The problem lay in the culture and lifestyle of Punjabis, a landlord's son was no longer interested in farming, said Parmod Kumar, director, Institute of Development and Communication.

Campus politics, too, has played it role. The state's gang culture has its roots in student politics of Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, police say.In 1985, a group led by student leader Prabhjinder Singh Dimpy gunned down rival Makhan Singh on the campus, the first political murder in the well-respected university. Dimpy, considered close to the Shiromani Akali Dal, formed a gang that also had links with criminals in Uttar Pradesh and even Pakistan.

He faced extortion and kidnapping charges in UP and was also accused of smuggling arms from Pakistan. He planned the abduction of a diamond trader in faraway Karnataka, where he was arrested. He escaped from jail and was killed in Chandigarh in 2006. Lately, the gangs have been flirting with anti-national forces. Ramanjit Singh Romi, an associate of Gounder who is in Hong Kong, has links with Pakistan's ISI. His aide, Jaswinder Singh Rocky, a former PU student leader, stepped in to form his own group with Jaipal, Shera Khuban and Gounder.

Edited By

Shruthi G

Reported By

Shruthi G

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