With gangster violence rampant throughout the year despite the lockdown imposed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, Chandigarh Police registered 33 cases under the Arms Act in 2020, highest in a decade, following increased recovery of weapons. Only 13 cases were registered in 2019 and eight in 2018.
Gangsters from the neighbouring states, including the jailed ones such as Lawrence Bishnoi, Dilpreet Singh Dhahan, Sukhpreet Singh Budha, Sampat Nehra and Dipu Banur, tried to dominate the crime scene in the city, leading to targeted shootings and extortion bids. This not only led to illegal weapons making their way into the city, but it also came to the fore that many gangsters had already hidden away their weapons in Chandigarh.
“The crackdown against gangsters and their sympathisers led to an increase in recovery of weapons. Over a dozen people were arrested for providing support to criminals as well as supplying weapons,” said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal. “There has been increased involvement of gangsters of Punjab and Haryana in crime in the city, but we have been able to arrest most of them.”
A few weapons recovered this year had the name of Ankit Bhadu, a sharpshooter of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang who was killed in an encounter in Zirakpur in February 2019, engraved on it, said a senior police official, not wishing to be named.
{{/usCountry}}A few weapons recovered this year had the name of Ankit Bhadu, a sharpshooter of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang who was killed in an encounter in Zirakpur in February 2019, engraved on it, said a senior police official, not wishing to be named.
{{/usCountry}}“It read RIP Ankit Bhadu. The gang was using these weapons, including countrymade, semi-automatic and automatic ones, with the same engraving to sort of pay homage to Bhadu,” he said.
Most weapons being brought to the city are purchased from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh or from Madhya Pradesh, said another cop privy with investigations.