AMRITSAR: The Amritsar police commissionerate on Thursday arrested four members of an international extortion gang after a brief encounter.
The arrested accused have been identified as Amandeep Singh and Simratpal Singh of Mehta village, Simratpal Singh, alias Simran, of Gharinda village in Amritsar, and Harpreet Singh alias Happy, a resident of Bhaini Mian Khan of Gurdaspur district.
According to commissioner of police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, the gang had been operating as an inter-district extortion network, primarily targeting businessmen in the city. In one such incident, the gang called a prominent businessman in the Sadar Amritsar area, demanding money. To intimidate the victim, the gang fired shots at a display board, sending a video of the incident to the victim, he said.
Bhullar said that Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Rampura village in Amritsar and presently residing in Spain, is running the network along with his brother Simratpal and associate Harpreet. Sukhdev along with his brother Simratpal and Harpreet identified the potential targets to extort money from them, in the name of gangster Dony Bal, the police commissioner added.
“Acting on technical and intelligence inputs, both the shooters Amandeep Singh and Simratpal Singh, were earlier arrested by the police station, sadar, team. On receiving secret information, a team from civil lines police station arrested Simratpal Singh and Harpreet Singh and recovered one pistol (.45 bore) from the Happy. During further proceedings near Ram Bagh at about 5am, accused Harpreet Singh snatched the carbine from a police official and aimed it at the police party. Acting in self-defence, ASI Balwinder Singh fired from his service weapon, causing a bullet injury to the right leg of the accused. He was taken to hospital for medical care,” Bhullar said.
{{/usCountry}}“Acting on technical and intelligence inputs, both the shooters Amandeep Singh and Simratpal Singh, were earlier arrested by the police station, sadar, team. On receiving secret information, a team from civil lines police station arrested Simratpal Singh and Harpreet Singh and recovered one pistol (.45 bore) from the Happy. During further proceedings near Ram Bagh at about 5am, accused Harpreet Singh snatched the carbine from a police official and aimed it at the police party. Acting in self-defence, ASI Balwinder Singh fired from his service weapon, causing a bullet injury to the right leg of the accused. He was taken to hospital for medical care,” Bhullar said.
{{/usCountry}}