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Main gunman in Sector 33 firing arrested
Nitin Nahar of Indira Colony, Chabal Road, Amritsar, was captured near the city’s Colour Resorts, Attari Road, with his associate Bikramjit Singh, who had reportedly helped shelter him, police said
Amritsar resident Nitin Nahar, believed to be the key gunman in the firing at the Sector 33 home of hotelier and businessman Rakesh Singla, was arrested by Punjab Police in the Holy City on Friday.
The firing at Singla’s home on May 31 targeted his younger brother and liquor baron Arvind Singla.
Nahar of Indira Colony, Chabal Road, Amritsar, was captured near the city’s Colour Resorts, Attari Road, with his associate Bikramjit Singh, who had reportedly helped shelter him.
He had been engaged by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, currently incarcerated in a Rajasthan prison.
The arrests came in an intelligence-led operation by a joint team of Amritsar (rural) police and organised crime control unit (OCCU), a police spokesperson said.
Nahar had used a .32 bore pistol in the firing.
Karan Sharma, a hotel management student who had also been involved in the firing, was arrested on June 6.
Two pistols of .32 calibre and .315 calibre with 40 and 10 live cartridges, respectively, were recovered from Nahar’s possession, which police believed was used in the crime.
Acting on Bishnoi’s orders
Nahar while being questioned revealed that he had been asked to carry out similar activities in Punjab, Chandigarh and Rajasthan by Bishnoi. He also said he was a close associate of Bobby Malhotra, a gangster with links to Bishnoi and currently lodged in Ferozepur Jail.
Malhotra on May 31 had directed Nahar to carry out the attack and a black Audi car was sent by Bishnoi to pick him up from Ludhiana and drop him at the outskirts of Chandigarh. From there, he was picked up in a silver Ford Ikon with the other gunmen and taken to Sector 33 where he fired a few rounds.
From here, he was dropped off at Kharar and then taken to a hideout in Amritsar in a white Bolero car on Malhotra’s directions.
Nahar is also involved in three other firing incidents in Amritsar, two targeting his rival group members Vipin Kumar (in January 2020) and Love Kumar (in February 2020). The third one in April this year involved a man who had filed a complaint against him in an old case at Chabal Road .
Toyota Fortuner: One car used for two shootouts as Bishnoi eyes big stakes in liquor business
A Toyota Fortuna used to ferry gunmen in both incidents of firing at sectors 33 and 9 in Chandigarh, one at the home of a liquor baron’s brother and the other at a liquor shop, within 48 hours on May 31 and June 2, has been recovered by police.
Both shootouts were masterminded by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi for a stake in the thriving liquor business in the region.
Of the two liquor contractors from Chandigarh being targeted, police officials say, these were “planned to intimidate liquor contractors of Chandigarh and thereby capture stakes in liquor shop contracts, similar to what has been done in Haryana.”
The police on Thursday night recovered the vehicle from the farmhouse of one Manjinder Singh Virk in Kumhar Majra village in Kurukshetra.
Virk, also a member of Bishnoi’s gang, was on the run. He was involved in firing at a liquor contractor in Shahbad, Punjab, and had attempt to murder and Arms Act cases registered against him in Haryana.
Investigations in the Chandigarh firing cases revealed that Virk with two other men, Mandeep alias Jeona of Ambala and Ranjit Singh alias Janty of Ismailabad, Kurukshetra, accompanied shooters Amarpreet alias Rinku alias Topi and Devender Chawla for executing the firing incident at the Sector 9 liquor shop.
A night before executing the crime, all the men stayed in a flat in Kharar, Punjab.
The Toyota Fortuner was used in the Sector 33 firing for carrying some gunmen who were moved later into a Ford Ikon car which also picked up the main shooter Nitin Nahar.
After executing the crime, the men drove the Ikon to where the Fortuner was parked and fled.
