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₹1-cr extortion demand: 2 Landa aides who opened fire at Mukerian bizman’s house held
Landa had threatened to kill bizman’s family; arrested accused also involved in Jan 8 Airport road firing and Sahnewal car-jacking incidents
Canada-based terrorist Lakhbir Singh Landa and US-based gangster Gurdev Singh Jassal’s two associates who opened fire at Mukerian businessman’s house in connection with ₹1-crore extortion demand have been arrested from Tarn Taran, said police on Monday.
“The operation was conducted by the Mohali CIA and the accused have been identified as Avtar Singh alias Vicky, 21, and Amarbir Singh, 20, both Tarn Taran residents,” said SSP Deepak Pareek.
The third shooter, Anmol Singh, alias Maula, is absconding. Police have recovered three .32 bore weapons with nine .32 bore rounds; two country-made pistols, four cartridges and a stolen Brezza car (PB91-G-4016) from the accused.
“The accused are from the families of the farmers and prima facie took the job for monetary gains. The third accused will be nabbed soon,” the Mohali SSP added.
The accused, according to the police, were tasked by Landa to threaten Rajesh Kumar, alias Sonu, a businessman in Arya Samaj Mohalla in Mukerian after the latter refused to give ₹1 crore extortion money demanded by the gangster.
“The accused procured weapons from Madhya Pradesh but needed a car to reach Mukerian. All three accused boarded a bus from Khadoor Sahib in Tarn Taran to Rajpura and reached Shambhu border on January 7 where they snatched a bike from a person on Rajpura-Ambala highway after firing two shots,” said a senior police officer who was part of the operation.
The accused reached Banur and tried to stop a white Toyota Etios Liva (PB-34-2354) being driven by Ekamdeep Singh Brar who was accompanied by his friend Inderpal Singh, both from Patiala. The duo was on way to Chandigarh when they were stopped by three accused on pretext of a query.
Finding them suspicious, Brar sped away from the spot but the trio chased his car for nearly 12 km from Banur to Mohali on a bike.
When they reached the Airport Road, the trio overtook and tried to block the car with the bike and opened fire, resulting in injuries to Brar and his friend. They, however, managed to escape and were later admitted to a private hospital in Phase 8.
After a failed car-jacking bid, the trio reached Sahnewal in Ludhiana where they managed to snatch a Brezza car around 7.30 am on January 8 after firing two rounds, said police.
On January 10, the accused along with their two more accomplices reached Mukerian in the same car and fired nine bullets at the house of bizman Rajesh Kumar as directed by Landa. Though Rajesh was in Greece at that time, his family was inside the house. Later, Landa sent the businessman a voice note, threatening to kill his family in case he fails to pay the extortion money.
US gangster kept guiding the accused
A member of the investigating team revealed that US-based gangster Jassal guided the accused to location of the victim’s house over video call. The accused were in direct touch with Landa through Instagram and Snapchat.
“Landa who hails from Harike, Tarn Taran, is targeting the youngsters in his district and other parts of Majha, including Amritsar. The absconding accused Anmol got ₹50,000 from an associate of Landa who promised handsome share in extortion money to the accused”, an investigator said.
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The lone clue
When Mohali police came to know about the January 8 Airport Road firing incident, they had a very sketchy information to start with. The only clue they got from the two victims, Brar and Inderpal, was that the accused spoke in Majhi dialect.
After media reports on Ludhiana car-jacking, the Mohali CIA team led by Jyoti Yadav, SP (investigation), Talwinder Singh, DSP (investigation) and Inspector Harminder Singh, in-charge Mohali CIA, connected the dots and checked the CCTV footage. They also roped in Ludhiana police.
“Though the footage was not clear, the three men were seen on the same bike. Using human and technical intelligence, we reached Tarn Taran and Amritsar as Majhi dialect is commonly used in the area. The team spent eight days there and finally managed to trace the accused and arrest them”, said a senior police officer.
