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Punjab Police get seven days to grill gangster Saraj
Saraj, who was wanted for Amritsar Hindu outfit leader’s murder, was arrested on Tuesday in Jalandhar.
A local court on Wednesday sent Saraj Singh Sandhu, alias Mintoo, 26, the gangster who is prime suspect in the murder of a right-wing Hindu outfit in Amritsar, to seven days of police remand.
He was produced into the court of judicial magistrate (1st class) Arun Soori at the district and sessions court by the organised crime control unit (OCCU) of Punjab Police.
Saraj allegedly shot Vipan Sharma, leader of Hindu Sangharsh Sena, last October. “We expect more revelations after interrogation,” said assistant inspector general (AIG), OCCU, Jalandhar, Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh.
Police had said that it was on a tip-off that a joint team of the OCCU and the Jalandhar (rural) police under AIG Khakh nabbed Saraj near a railway crossing on the Jalandhar-Amritsar road (NH-1) on Tuesday morning. He was going to Amritsar from Delhi, said the AIG at a press meet; two pistols and cartridges were seized from his possession.
At the time of Sharma’s murder, Saraj had grown long hair and beard to conceal his identity, the security camera video footage of which fuelled the speculation of Sikh separatism as the reason behind the murder. But he later got the hair and beard cut. He also used to shift base to neighbouring states after crimes, police said.
Wanted in 15 cases of heinous crimes, Saraj has now too “confessed” to the cops that he killed Sharma to avenge the killing of his friend Shubham’s father, a head constable, for which he held Sharma responsible.
