Ransom calls, attacks on kabaddi players, blasts at police installations, and now the brutal murder of singer-politician Sidhu Moose Wala, gangsters are on the prowl in Punjab once again.
After a thaw in their activities during the Congress regime, when eight gangsters were gunned down and many others were caught, gangsters have emerged as the biggest challenge for the Bhagwant Maan-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the past two months.
What has added to the worries of the government and its police department is the involvement of gangsters from outside the state and those sitting abroad. “Gangsters and their associates hiring men from outside Punjab for contract killing and other illegal activities is a new trend, which has made our job more challenging,” said a senior Punjab Police official, on the condition of anonymity.
In the broad daylight killing of international kabaddi player Sandeep Ambian in Jalandhar’s Nakodar earlier this year, police had arrested three contract killers belonging to Haryana who were hired by a gangster sitting abroad.
Similarly, in the RPG attack on the intelligence headquarters in Mohali earlier this month, the police probe has pointed to the involvement of gangsters from outside the state hired by Canada-based Lakhbir Landa on the directions of Khalistani terrorist Harvinder Singh Rinda, who is believed to be in Pakistan. Landa is active in extortion rackets being run in Punjab, the police found.
Police probes have also revealed that local gangsters were hired by Rinda to carry out grenade attacks outside the army base in Pathankot and CIA police station in SBS Nagar in November last year and later outside a police post in Rupnagar district. These gangsters further hired local youths to hurl grenades at these buildings. Rinda’s name also emerged after the recovery of IEDs from gangsters during a recent joint operation of the Punjab and Haryana Police in Karnal.
{{/usCountry}}Police probes have also revealed that local gangsters were hired by Rinda to carry out grenade attacks outside the army base in Pathankot and CIA police station in SBS Nagar in November last year and later outside a police post in Rupnagar district. These gangsters further hired local youths to hurl grenades at these buildings. Rinda’s name also emerged after the recovery of IEDs from gangsters during a recent joint operation of the Punjab and Haryana Police in Karnal.
{{/usCountry}}“What is an even bigger concern is the involvement of gangsters in anti-national activities, which are increasing day-by-day. This needs to be check immediately. Mixing of local gangsters with anti-India forces outside the state is a deadly cocktail,” said an ADGP-rank officer at the helm of affairs in intelligence operations, who did not wish to be named.
Intelligence inputs have revealed that how gangsters lodged in central jails of the state are running the operations from behind the bar. Recently, a Canada-based gangster was found making a video call from his cell in Faridkot. A mobile phone was also recovered from international drug racketeer Jagdish Bhola from the Patiala jail.
According to details shared by the Punjab DGP during a press conference on April 11, there were 545 A,B and C category gangsters in the state a few years, back out of which effective action was taken against 515. Eight gangsters were gunned down during encounters, Vicky Gounder, Prema Lahoria and Jaipal, during the tenure of Captain Amarinder Singh, after which many gangsters shifted their base outside Punjab.
Gangs of Punjab
Bhagwanpuria gang: Known as the “Supari King” in Punjab, Jasdeep Singh, alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, has 59 cases of murder, robbery, dacoity and snatching registered against him across the state in the past one decade. Presently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail, he started off as a small-time chain snatcher in Batala and rose in the world of crime after coming in contact with gangsters in 2011. Police say he has invested hugely in kabaddi clubs through his brother.
Lawrence Bishnoi gang: Led by Lawrence Bishnoi — a former student leader at Panjab University, Chandigarh, who is presently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail — the gang is active in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan. The gang and its Canada-based associate Goldy Brar have claimed responsibility for Sidhu Moose Wala’s killing. Also involved in the murder of Congress leader Gurlal Pehalwan, the gang members have been booked in several cases of murder, extortion, snatching and carjacking across the region.
Bambiha gang: Named after Davinder Bambiha, who was killed in a police encounter in Punjab in 2016, the gang is presently led by Gaurav Patial, alias Lucky, who is operating it from Armenia. His aide Sukhpreet Budha was arrested in Armenia a couple of years back. The gang is running an extortion racket and investing the money in music companies, according to police. It had recently claimed responsibility for threatening Punjabi singer Mankirt Aulakh.