Delhi Police catch gangster Deepak Tinu: Punjab Police caught napping again

Having fled from the custody of Punjab Police on October 1, Deepak Tinu was arrested by the Delhi Police’s special cell from Rajasthan’s Ajmer on Wednesday

With the arrest of gangster Deepak Tinu by Delhi Police, the Punjab Police have suffered yet another embarrassment in connection with Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder.

For nearly three weeks since gangster Deepak Tinu’s escape from police custody, the SIT formed by Punjab Police even failed to establish the circumstances around his escape. (HT Photo)

Having fled from the custody of Punjab Police on October 1, Tinu was arrested by the Delhi Police’s special cell from Rajasthan’s Ajmer on Wednesday, while the former struggled to even piece together the circumstances around his escape.

Since Tinu’s escape from the custody of Mansa police’s Crime Investigation Unit (CIA), the Punjab Police arrested and sacked the unit in-charge, sub-inspector Pritpal Singh, who was also a member of the SIT probing the Moose Wala murder case.

A three-member SIT was also constituted under the chairmanship of inspector general of police Mukhwinder Singh Chinna, and members of anti-gangster task force (AGTF) AIG Opinderjit Singh Ghuman and Mansa SSP Gaurav Toora.

But for nearly three weeks, the SIT even failed to establish the story of Tinu’s escape.

Despite the interrogation of Pritpal and Tinu’s girlfriend Jatinder Kaur, who helped him in escape and was eventually arrested from the Mumbai airport, Punjab Police could not close in on Tinu's whereabouts.

Even the teams, that conducted raids in Rajasthan to nab the absconding gangster a week ago, came back empty handed.

IG Chinna said Tinu had been arrested by the Delhi Police and Punjab Police will bring him here. “It was an independent operation of the Delhi Police; we were not informed,” he added.

Since Moose Wala’s murder in Mansa district on May 29, most of the major breakthroughs have been made by the Delhi Police, leaving their counterparts in Punjab red-faced.

While Punjab Police were gathering details of the killing, Delhi Police were quick to take custody of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi on May 30 in an Arms Act case and started investigation into the singer’s murder.

Following Bishnoi’s interrogation, Delhi Police made the first breakthrough in the singer’s murder case with the arrest of two shooters — Priyavrat, alias Fauji, and Kashish, alias Kuldeep — from Kutch in Gujarat. Later, another shooter, Ankit Sersa, was also arrested by the Delhi Police’s special cell.

Subsequently, two shooters Manpreet Singh, alias Mannu Kussa, and Jagroop Sing, alias Roopa, were eliminated by the Punjab Police in an encounter in Amritsar.

Another shooter Deepak Mundi was arrested from the Indo-Nepal border in joint operation with the Delhi Police’s special cell.