Member of Gounder’s rival gang flees from police custody in Amritsar court
The cops were taking him in handcuffs to the third floor of the district court building when he yanked his hands away and ran.
While the Punjab Police are celebrating the encounter of Punjab’s most wanted gangster Vicky Gounder and his two aides terming it as their great success with chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh even tweeting his congratulations, gangster Rajat Malhotra, alias Karan Masti, fled from police custody in the court complex in Amritsar on Monday.
Masti, who is a key member of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Bobby Malhotra gang, was behind bars in the central jail here in various cases, including murder and robberies. He was arrested in October last year with illegal weapons. Bhagwanpuria was a rival of slain gangster Vicky Gounder.
The cops were taking Masti in handcuffs to the third floor of the district court building, and he was nearing the room where he was to be produced, when he yanked his hands away and ran. The cops tried to chase him but in vain.
Deputy commissioner of police (Investigations) Jagmohan Singh, who rushed to the court complex after his escape, said the police had brought the undertrial to court for lifting vehicles. He said the police have launched a hunt to nab him.
After eluding the police for many months, Masti was arrested along with his aide Nikhil Takhi, alias Stylish, by the police last October. At that time, the police had seized two country-made pistols along with four rounds besides a stolen motorcycle from their possession.
He was also booked in connection with the murder of Hariya, kingpin of another rival gang, who was killed in front of the Division B police station in May 2016. Masti along with his accomplices had robbed a bank in Hoshiarpur in 2016, said police sources.
He was also wanted in many criminal cases, including that of stealing a car at gunpoint, in Haryana.
Ironically, the police officers who had called him a notorious member of the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang, at a press conference after his arrest last year, tried to paint him as an ordinary snatcher after he fled from their custody on Monday.