Punjab: Ex-dy passport officer among 15 held after gangster Budda’s interrogation

Then PRO in Chandigarh passport office, Bidhi Chand, took ₹50,000 to make fake passport of gangster

Police have arrested 15 persons, including a retired passport officer, following the interrogation of dreaded gangster Sukhpreet Singh, alias Budda, recently deported from Armenia.

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Budda was deported on the perusal of Punjab Police and was arrested on November 23 when he landed at the IGI Airport in Delhi.

Besides the arrest of 15 of his associates, police have also recovered a large cache of weapons, drugs and foreign currency.

Former deputy passport officer Bidhi Chand, who was posted as public relations officer in the Chandigarh passport office during 2007-08, received ₹50,000 from one Gaurav Patyal to prepare Budha’s passport on fake name and address and to deliver it by hand to him. Chand retired as deputy passport officer in 2011.

‘WAS TRYING TO ENTER US FROM ARMENIA’

Disclosing this here on Monday, Punjab director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said Budda had been trying to enter the US illegally from Armenia at the time of his detention. Since Budda fled Punjab to the UAE in April 2018 after attack on Punjabi singer Parmish Verma, he had travelled to many countries, including China, Iran, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Georgia and Singapore. But Punjab Police was tracking his movements, said the DGP.

The police are now trying to identify his contacts in these countries, said the DGP, adding that on Budda’s interrogation, six weapons, including a carbine, bulletproof jacket, 3kg opium, seven vehicles, ammunition, ₹13.8 lakh rupees and $1,700 has been recovered from him and his associates.

Budda did not report back to Faridkot jail after he was out on parole in Jugraj Singh, alias Raja, murder case in Bathinda district. The gangster was sentenced to life imprisonment in the case. After jumping parole, he and his associates murdered Pradeep Kumar and Amit Saharan at a farmhouse in Chautala village in Haryana in January 2017. This case is being probed, said the DGP.

WAS INVOLVED IN ATTACK ON PARMISH VERMA

In July, 2017, Budda murdered Ravinder Kochar at his rice mill at Bajakhana in Faridkot district. In April 2018, he and his associates murdered Bhupesh Rana at the Chandimandir area, Panchkula, in an inter-gang rivalry. He was also involved in attack on singer Parmish Verma on April 14, 2018, after the latter refused to pay ₹20 lakh extortion money. Subsequently, he flew to Dubai via Nepal, and started making ransom calls, extortions and murders from Dubai, the DGP said.

When he was in Dubai, three more sensational murders were committed by his close associates in Punjab, investigations had revealed. Hardev Singh, alias Gogi Jattana, a poultry farm owner from Rampura Phul, was murdered on June 17, 2018, by two motorcyclists as he was suspected to be a police informer in the Davinder Bambiha shootout case.

With his arrest and the arrest of 15 of his criminal associates, the perpetrators of 10 criminal crimes of murder, extortion, carjacking and snatching have been identified and arrested. Four new FIRs have also been registered against Budda’s associates.