E-Paper
Gangster Jaipal Bhullar, aides used snatched police weapons to gun down ASIs in Jagraon
It is suspected that the weapons used to kill ASIs Bhagwan Singh and Dalwinderjit Singh had been snatched from an ASI in Doraha city, five days before the attack, police said
Gangster Jaipal Bhullar and his three accomplices, who are on the run after gunning down two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) of the crime investigation agency (CIA) in Jagraon town of Ludhiana district on May 15, had used 9mm pistols, which are strictly reserved for security personnel, to carry out the killings, police officials said on Friday.
It is suspected that the weapons used to kill ASIs Bhagwan Singh and Dalwinderjit Singh had been snatched from an ASI in Doraha city, five days before the attack, police said. It is suspected that Bhullar and his aides — Balwinder Singh of Mahalla Khurd village, Moga; Jaspreet Singh of Kharar town, Mohali; and Darshan Singh of Sahauli village, Ludhiana — have at least three official pistols, including one snatched from slain ASI Bhagwan Singh, in their possession.
The development has sent shock waves across the police department, which is now scrambling to connect incidents where miscreants have made off with police weapons to crimes committed using 9mm pistols. Two recent incidents where the police personnel have lost their service pistols to miscreants are under the scanner.
On May 10, two occupants of a Hyundai Aura car had assaulted ASI Sukhdev Singh on the national highway in Doraha and fled with his service pistol, which was loaded with six bullets.
They had injured the ASI with the butt of a pistol they were already carrying and driven off on the wrong side of the road after removing the number plates of the car.
An FIR was registered under Sections 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in the discharge of his public functions), 332 (causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 333 (causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 379-B (theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and different sections of the Arms act against unidentified accused at the Doraha police station.
It is suspected that the vehicle used to carry out the crime had been snatched from an insurance company employee at gunpoint in Samrala on October 23. However, the police had failed to trace the accused.
In the second incident that took place on May 3, ASI Rajesh Kumar, who is deputed in the anti-smuggling cell, had lost his service pistol loaded with 10 bullets to miscreants, who had broken into his car after smashing its windowpanes near the civil hospital. A case had been lodged against unidentified accused at Police Division 2.
Inspector general of police (IGP, Ludhiana range) Naunihal Singh said the bullets recovered from the bodies of the ASIs had been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination. “Several teams are working round-the-clock to arrest Bhullar and his aides,” he said.
