Chandigarh: Punjab police on Friday claimed to have nabbed three key shooters of notorious gangster Sonu Khatri, a close associate of terrorist Harvinder Rinda, in a pan-India operation conducted in coordination with central agencies.
Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab, Gaurav Yadav, said that the police had also recovered three foreign-made sophisticated pistols of .32 bore from the possession of the accused shooters - Sukhmanjot Singh alias Sukhman Brar of New Deol Nagar in Jalandhar, Jaskaran Singh alias Jassi Lodhipur of village Lodhipur in SBS Nagar and Jograj Singh alias Joga of village Pholriwal in Jalandhar.
In an intelligence-led operation, Punjab police teams under the overall supervision of ADGP Promod Ban nabbed accused Sukhman Brar from Indo-Nepal border, while he was attempting to escape to Nepal, and other two were arrested from Gurugram, Haryana, DGP Yadav said adding that the accused were planning to prepare fake passports to escape abroad from Kathmandu, Nepal.
He said that all the arrested persons are involved in at least five murder cases including Makhan murder cases, which took place in Nawanshahr in March 2022, besides, five cases of other heinous crimes including attempt to murder, Arms Act, carjacking and extortion. “They were also involved in a broad day-light shootout at Metro Plaza in Zirakpur,” he added.
Sharing more details, AIG Sandeep Goel, who was leading the operation, said that preliminary investigations have revealed that arrested accused persons used to commit sensational crimes in the state of Punjab on the directions of Gangster Sonu Khatri, and after committing the crime they used to take refuge in hideouts located in different parts of the country and in Nepal. It has also been revealed that hideouts were arranged by foreign handler Sonu Khatri, who also used to pay the shooters on a regular basis via Hawala transactions, he said.
