Faridkot : The district police arrested two members of the Arsh Dala gang, who came to Faridkot to target an executive engineer of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) after he refused to give extortion money, after a brief encounter near Machaki Mal Singh village in Faridkot district on Sunday afternoon, police said.
The accused have been identified as Vimalpreet Singh and Ashu Kumar of Jalandhar. The police recovered two illegal .32-bore pistols and a .30-bore pistol from the accused.
“Both criminals sustained gunshot injuries in their legs during an encounter with the police. They were admitted to the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital at Faridkot for treatment,” Faridkot senior superintendent of police (SSP) Harjeet Singh said.
“After getting a tip-off, a team of the Faridkot police crime investigation agency (CIA) intercepted two criminals on a bridge near Machaki Mal Singh village but when signalled them to stop, the accused opened fire at them. Both accused suffered bullet injuries in the leg and were arrested. As per the preliminary investigation, both gangsters are residents of Jalandhar and they had come to Faridkot to target a local resident, who had refused to give them extortion money. They are associates of gangster Arsh Dala. The police had already registered a case last month when the Faridkot resident had got an extortion call from the gangsters demanding ₹20 lakh,” he added.
Both the gangsters were staying at Teachers Colony in the city using fake identities and they had planned to eliminate the PSPCL executive engineer, said an official, adding: “The arrested accused have criminal cases registered against them in various districts of Punjab.”
{{/usCountry}}Both the gangsters were staying at Teachers Colony in the city using fake identities and they had planned to eliminate the PSPCL executive engineer, said an official, adding: “The arrested accused have criminal cases registered against them in various districts of Punjab.”
{{/usCountry}}Canada-based Arshdeep Singh, alias Arsh Dala, originally hails from Dalla village in the Moga district of Punjab. He is associated with extremist groups, including the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). He has been involved in various organised criminal activities and is also connected to the notorious Canadian gangster Goldy Brar.
He is mostly engaged in terror funding, raising terror modules, coordinating the supply of weapons from the other side of the border, and planning specific murders across Punjab.