Shootout outside Zirakpur hotel: Nabbed gangsters were extorting money from hoteliers every month, say police

Following the gangsters’ arrest, five more hoteliers approached the police on Monday, stating that they had been paying extortion money to these gangsters every month out of fear for life

The three aides of gangster Bhuppi Rana arrested from Zirakpur’s Baltana area on Sunday night had been exhorting up to ₹50,000 every month from local hoteliers, police said on Monday.

SSP Vivek Sheel Soni giving details of the Zirakpur shootout and the subsequent arrest of gangsters in Mohali on Monday. (HT Photp)

Following the trio’s arrest, that came after a late-night shootout outside Hotel Relax Inn, five more hoteliers approached the police on Monday, stating that they had been paying extortion money to these gangsters every month out of fear for life.

In the shootout, one of the three gangsters, Ranvir, alias Rania, a resident of Barwala, had suffered a gunshot wound on his leg and is undergoing treatment at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh.

The other accused, Ashish, alias Aman, of Barwala, and Vishal, alias Vikrant, of Panchkula, were sent to four-day police remand by a court on Monday.

Were working at the behest Ankit Rana

SSP Vivek Sheel Soni said the arrested gangsters were working at the behest of Ankit Rana, a cousin of gangster Bhuppi Rana, who was currently lodged in Patiala jail and was the main conspirator in the murder of Youth Akali Dal leader Vikramjit Singh Middukhera in Mohali in August 2021.

“Ankit has been operating an extortion racket in Punjab and neighbouring states. With the arrest of his aides, police also recovered two pistols and 10 live cartridges. We are hopeful of breaking their nexus soon. Hoteliers are urged not to pay any extortion money and inform the police,” he said.

According to police, their arrest came following a complaint by a hotelier, Feroz Khan, a resident of from Delhi, who had recently shifted to Zirakpur and was running Hotel Anant in Baltana on lease.

In his complaint, he had stated that around 12.30 am on July 7, four men came to his hotel with guns and demanded money from his staff. They thrashed the staff in his absence and told them that he will have to pay them ₹30,000 per month to run the hotel in Zirakpur.

After a probe, police traced the gangsters with the help of CCTV footage and their mobile phone numbers, and arrested them on Sunday night.