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Bishnoi gang vows to avenge Youth Akali leader’s murder
Facebook page purportedly run by the Bishnoi gang posted the message a day after rival Davinder Bambiha gang took responsibility for the murder
A day after Youth Akali Dal leader Vikramjit Singh Middukhera, aka Vicky Middukhera, 33, was shot dead in broad daylight in Sector 71, Mohali, on Saturday, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang reportedly vowed to avenge his death.
Hours after the murder on Saturday, the rival Davinder Bambiha gang had taken responsibility for the attack in a Facebook post. It claimed that Vicky was killed as he was allegedly acting as an “informer” for the Bishnoi gang.
On Sunday, a Facebook page purportedly run by the Bishnoi gang posted a message, pledging to take revenge for Vicky’s death. The post in Hindi says that Vicky Middukhera was “our brother and had nothing to do with criminal activities”.
According to a senior police officer privy to the investigations, Vicky had for long been on the hit list of gangsters, owing to his support to Bishnoi since their days in student politics as both were at one point affiliated to the Students Organisation of Panjab University.
Both Bambiha and Bishnoi gangs are running extortion racket in the region. Bishnoi is calling the shots from behind bars while Gaurav Patial, alias Lucky, is running the Bambiha gang from abroad.
According to senior superintendent of police (SSP), Mohali, Satinder Singh, who is heading the investigations, Lucky, who is from Khuda Lahora in Chandigarh, is the main suspect. “He is at present in Armenia,” he said.
Lucky was an aide of the slain gangster Davinder Bambiha, and according to sources he is running the gang after another aide, Dilpreet Singh Dahan, was arrested in a police encounter in Chandigarh three years ago.
Lucky’s name had earlier cropped up in the murder of Gurlal Brar, an aide of Bishnoi who was shot dead outside a nightclub in Chandigarh last year.
A day before Vicky’s murder, police in the neighbouring Panchkula district had also arrested two sharp shooters of the Bambiha gang, who were allegedly planning to eliminate Bishnoi gang members.
Vicky sustained 12 bullet injuries
According to Vicky’s postmortem, he had sustained 12 bullet injuries. The postmortem was conducted by a three-member panel of doctors led by Dr Charanpreet Kaur at the civil hospital in Phase 6.
Dr Kaur said the victim sustained 12 bullet injuries, out of which 10 pierced through and two were recovered from his body. Some of the bullets were fired from point-blank range, and hit his chest, stomach and temple, she said.
“The victim died within minutes of the attack as his liver and lungs were ruptured,” said the doctor.
According to the CCTV footage and eyewitness account, the four assailants had come in a white Hyundai i20 car and were waiting for Vicky who was visiting a property dealer at the Mataur market in Sector 71.
Two of them chased Vicky and fired at him repeatedly as he was about to sit in his SUV around 10:30am on Saturday. According to police, a .30 bore pistol was used in the crime and at least 20 rounds were fired.
“We have conducted raids at eight possible hideouts, but got no lead. Based on the CCTV footage, we are trying to match the pictures of the shooters with criminals in our old records,” said SSP Satinder Singh.
Also, the Mohali registration number fixed on the assailants’ car has turned out to be fake. “The car owner had put the vehicle on sale online. It seems the shooters picked up the number from there,” said the SSP.
