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Mohali: Firing outside Cong leader’s house in Baltana
Police teams recovered four empty cartridges from outside Chaudhary’s house, while two bullets were reportedly found lodged in the main gate
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Unidentified assailants fired seven to eight rounds outside the house of Congress leader and property dealer Ram Kumar Chaudhary, 63, in Baltana, Zirakpur, around 2.17 am on Tuesday. Police are looking into a possible link with extortion threats his family allegedly received last year in the name of gangster Doni Bal.
Bal, a member of the notorious Devinder Bambiha gang and believed to be based abroad, is wanted by the Punjab Police in multiple cases of murder, attempted murder, dacoity, smuggling, and a wave of extortion cases targeting local businessmen and industrialists across Chandigarh and other places in Punjab.
Police teams recovered four empty cartridges from outside Chaudhary’s house, while two bullets were reportedly found lodged in the main gate. Bullet marks were also found on the gate and the walls of the house.
Assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Gazalpreet Kaur said teams have been deployed to identify and arrest the accused. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage from surrounding areas captured a suspicious white car in the vicinity around the time of the firing, but police have not confirmed whether it was the one that was used by the assailants.
Chaudhary told police that his family had received threats in Bal’s name in the past, and that they had approached the police over the matter. His daughter-in-law, Ritu, is a former councillor from Ward 31 of Zirakpur. Police are investigating whether the firing was connected to the alleged threats or stemmed from some other dispute.
A case has been registered under Sections 308(2) (extortion) and 351(3) (aggravated criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act, 1959. The FIR mentions four to five unidentified suspects.
