Two gangsters involved in the murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala were killed in a police encounter that continued for over four hours in the Attari border area on Wednesday.
Three cops were also shot at and were hospitalised; their condition was said to be stable.
Acting on a tip-off that the two gangsters, Manpreet Singh aka Manu and Jagroop Singh aka Rupa, were hiding in a farmhouse, the Punjab Police’s anti-gangsters task force rushed to the spot, cordoned off the area and asked the accused to surrender. However, when the ‘surrender’ call elicited no response the encounter ensued, resulting in the death of the two gangsters. According to reports, hundreds of rounds were fired by both sides.
AK-47 RECOVERED
According to official information, the AGTF recovered an AK-47, a 0.30 mm pistol and heavy ammunition from the two gangsters. The police said that a bag was also recovered from the spot, though it was yet to be inspected and examined by the forensic team.
According to police, it was Manu who had fired at Moosewala with an AK-47 rifle; the former was with Rupa in the car which was trailing the singer’s vehicle at Jawahar Ke village in Mansa district on May 29.
Manu and Rupa were the first to overtake Moosewala’s car and open fire. Another car had been tailing Moosewala and was carrying the four shooters who were identified as Priyavrat alias Fauji, Kashish alias Kuldeep, Ankit Sirsa and Deepak Mundi. Except for Mundi, the other three had been arrested by Delhi police.
Manu and Rupa had been on the run since the murder. According to AGTF, they had re-entered Punjab from Rajasthan recently and were on its radar. The two had evaded the police for 52 days. CCTV footage, which recently surfaced, showed the two riding a bike at Samalsar in Moga district on June 21.
The two belonged to the Jaggu Bhaganpuria gang which had provided the shooters to Lawrence Bishnoi for the Moosewala killing.
The singer was shot dead in broad daylight by a group of assailants on May 29 near his ancestral village in Mansa district a day after his security was withdrawn by the Punjab police, along with that of other VIPs. He had joined the Congress in December last year ahead of the February assembly elections this year.
