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Police books Harry Chatha, 8 others for using fake passports to flee
The state special operations cell (SSOC) wing of Punjab Police has booked eight wanted criminals, including notorious gangster Supreet Singh alias Harry Chatha, who allegedly fled the country using a passport made with fake IDs.
AMRITSAR The state special operations cell (SSOC) wing of Punjab Police has booked eight wanted criminals, including notorious gangster Supreet Singh alias Harry Chatha, who allegedly fled the country using a passport made with fake IDs.
With the registration of the case, the police have also pointed to a deep-rooted inter-state nexus allegedly being run for providing a safe haven to gangsters and infamous proclaimed offenders (POs). The case has been registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security) 468 (forgery for cheating), 471-474 (dishonestly use as genuine), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) 198 (using as true a certificate known to be false), and Section 12 (1) (b) of the Passport Act, 1976.
Those booked in the FIR, include Supreet Singh alias Harry Chatha of Batala and Pavittar Singh of Kalanaur in Gurdaspur district, and Gurjant Singh alias Bhola of Havelian village, which is situated near the India-Pakistan border and is infamous for drug smuggling, Rashpal Singh alias Dana of Bhuchar Kalan village, Manpreet Singh alias Manna and Gurdev Singh of Chambal village, and Rao Barinder Singh of Patti in Tarn Taran district. All the persons booked have criminal records and are wanted by police in various cases registered across the state.
Chatha, according to Punjab Police, visited Pakistan a day after gangster-turned-terrorist Harwinder Singh alias Rinda died. Chatha is said to be one of the masterminds of the Nabha jailbreak and fled to Europe some five years back.
According to the first information report (FIR), the copy of which is with HT, the SSOC received secret information that a gang has been active in making passports using fake IDs in Punjab’s Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, and in other states of the country.
The network of the gang is spread in the passport offices, Sewa Kendras, police department and other concerned departments, the FIR reads.
“With the help of this gang, the accused managed to flee using the passports made on fake IDs. The secret informer has also told that many gangsters and proclaimed offenders (POs) are in contact with the gang for getting their passports made using fake IDs and fake names in Punjab and other states,” the FIR said.
A senior official of Punjab Police, who wished not to be named, said the racket of fake passports was being operated for the last many years. He said, “Chatha seems to have left India more than five years ago. Similarly, notorious gangster-turned-terrorist Lakhbir Singh alias Landa, who is presently staying in Canada, left the country in 2017. Landa was on Punjab Police radar in 2017, and even after this, he managed to flee.”
The then Tarn Taran SSP, Dhruman H Nimbale, in June 2021, had said that Landa had, apparently, fled to Canada using a fake passport. Landa is facing more than 30 criminal cases in India and has been accused of being a mastermind of rocket-propelled grenade attacks on Punjab Police’s Sarhali police station in Tarn Taran district and Intelligence Headquarters in SAS Nagar.
Assistant inspector general (AIG), SSOC, Amritsar, Sukhminder S Mann didn’t respond to repeated calls.
