Three of the six shooters involved in the murder of Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep Singh, an accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, at Kotkapura town in Punjab’s Faridkot district were apprehended on Friday.
Also read: Dera follower’s murder: 2 killings raise concerns over law and order situation in Punjab
Earlier, the Punjab Police intelligence unit and Delhi Police counter-intelligence unit identified all six assailants who killed Pardeep Singh inside his shop in Kotkapura on Thursday morning.
Faridkot senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajpal Singh confirmed that the four shooters belonged to Haryana. Police sources said the two shooters from Punjab were Bhupinder Goldy and Manpreet Mani. Efforts are on to arrest them.
Raids in Patiala lead to arrest
Following the identification, the police carried out raids to apprehend them. The Delhi Police team conducted raids in the police station area of Bakshiwala in Patiala at 3am on Friday and apprehended three of the six involved in the murder of the dera follower.
The police identified the apprehended persons as residents of Haryana, of which two hailed from Rohtak and one from Bhiwani. “There were a total of six assailants; four from Haryana (the fourth absconding belongs to the Haryana module with an alias Hooda) and two from Punjab module,” the Delhi Police statement said.
{{/usCountry}}The police identified the apprehended persons as residents of Haryana, of which two hailed from Rohtak and one from Bhiwani. “There were a total of six assailants; four from Haryana (the fourth absconding belongs to the Haryana module with an alias Hooda) and two from Punjab module,” the Delhi Police statement said.
{{/usCountry}}It said that the modules were being handled independently by Canada-based Goldy Brar, an accomplice of fugitive Harvinder Singh, alias Rinda, and jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
Efforts are on to apprehend the absconding accused.
According to police, the accused had fired about 60 bullets at Pardeep Singh.
The Bargari sacrilage pertains to the incident reported in Faridkot in 2015 where parts of Guru Granth Sahib were found scattered at Bargari village in Faridkot on October 12, 2015, and an FIR was registered under Sections 295 and 120-B of the IPC at the Bajakhana police station.
Family wants probe to be expedited
Pardeep’s body was kept at the sect at Kotkapura, where followers have been gathering. The family has demanded that the police investigate the case expeditiously.
After meeting the district administration, dera state committee member Harcharan Singh said: “We have discussed this with other dera followers. All have demanded that the probe be conducted properly. Investigations in the murder of dera followers in the past are incomplete so police must complete this probe. No decision has been taken on the cremation,” he said.
Security up at dera’s Punjab headquarters
After the murder of the dera follower, Punjab Police beefed up security at the Dera Sacha Sauda state headquarters at Salabatpura in Bathinda district. Security was also up at naam charcha ghars or congregation centres of the sect across Punjab.
The Faridkot district police have increased the security cover of six other dera followers accused in the sacrilege cases of 2015.
SSP Rajpal Singh said the security of other dera followers was being reviewed, too.