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Bhagwanpuria-linked Batala gang behind murder of Akali sarpanch’s husband: Police
Six booked Police say animosity over victim providing information to help it raid the main accused’s house is the motive
Police have linked ‘Pavitar Gang’, a group of Batala-based criminals, associated with gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, to the brutal killing of a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) sarpanch’s husband, Baba Gurdeep Singh, 52, at Umarpura village in Majitha constituency in Amritsar on Wednesday. The victim’s wife, Gurjit Kaur, 50, is the sarpanch.
Gangster Bhagwanpuria is lodged in Patiala jail and is an under-trial in 30 criminal cases. Police say assailants had pumped eight bullets into Gurdeep, who was the sarpanch of the village from 2014-18 and is a close associate of former SAD minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
So far, six accused have been booked. These are Harmanjit Singh and his father Nirmal Singh; Harwinder Singh Sandhu of Pandoori village; Balraj Singh, alias Buri, of Basant Kot in Amritsar; Inderbir Singh (all from the Pavitar Gang), and one Manbir Singh, a relative of Harmanjit.
A case has been registered under sections 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) of the IPC and 25-54-59 of the Arms Act at Majitha police station.
Majitha DSP Jogeshwar Singh Goraya said the prime accused Harmanjit belongs to ‘Pavitar Gang’, and is wanted in other criminal cases as well. In the past, Batala SSP OS Ghumman had told HT, “The kingpin of the gang, Pavitar Singh, is associated with Jaggu Bhagwanpuria.”
Harmanjit’s mother, Gurjit Kaur (a name-sake of the sarpanch) had fought the sarpanch’s election for Congress party against the victim’s wife in December 2018. “Harmanjit had been keeping a grudge, as his mother had lost the last panchayat polls,” alleged Jagdish Singh, a relative of the victim.
Amritsar-rural Congress president Bhagwantpal Singh Sachhar said the accused’s mother had an ‘alliance’ with Congress party during the panchayat polls. “Investigation will reveal the murder motive,” he added. “Harmanjit believed that the victim was providing information to police to help raid his house. This is the motive,” the DSP added.
One accused arrested
“On the basis of CCTV footage from the village, we rounded up Manbir, who admitted to providing information about Gurdeep’s movement to the other accused. He has confessed that Pavitar Gang’s members were behind the murder,” said a senior police official, adding, “Preliminary investigation shows Harmanjit, Inderbir and an unidentified person were on the bike, from where the assailants fired on Gurdeep before fleeing to Batala.”
Same gang claimed responsibility previously
In November 2019, a Pavitar Gang member, Harwinder Singh Sandhu, had claimed responsibility for killing Mandeep Singh, 26, of Pandoori village, around 12km from the district headquarters, in a Facebook post. The same gang had also claimed responsibility for firing bullets and injuring another Amritsar man, just half-an-hour before the brutal murder of Mandeep, a labourer. The accused had opened more than 20 rounds, while killing Mandeep, police had said.
Kingpin of gang in the US
Last year, the Amritsar rural police had initiated the process to get the Interpol to issue a Red-Corner Notice (RCN) against Pavitar Gang kingpin Pavitar Singh and his close aide Husandeep Singh, to extradite these gangsters from the US, where they are learnt to have been living for the past few months.
