Patiala, January 27: Two .32 bore pitstols, one .30 bore pistol and a large quantity of ammunition were recovered from the possession of gangsters Vicky Gounder and Prema Lahoriya who were killed in an encounter on Friday, senior police officials said today.
Mobile phones and dongles, used for communication through social media, and a Swift Dzire car with fake number plate were also recovered from the house. Many fake number plates were also recovered from their place of hiding, police said.
Gounder, Nabha jailbreak mastermind who had a reward of Rs 7 lakh by Punjab Police and another from Rajasthan Police, was using social media as a tool to create terror and issue threats to rival gangs and police officers.
He was using multiple Facebook accounts, operated through associates in various countries, including the Gulf nations, Cyprus and Germany, said DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta, adding that the most followed account had more than 1 lakh followers and collectively, Gounder had around 4-5 lakh FB followers.
A proclaimed offender, wanted in 10 cases of murder, gang-war, jailbreak, extortion, drug smuggling, weapon smuggling, etc., Gounder was under examination for his possible links with militant/radical elements as well as ISI.
Recently, he got a delivery of an automatic assault rifle from Pakistan through his close associate and handler, Ramanjit Singh, alias Romi (Hong Kong), who is also wanted by Punjab Police and against whom a Red Corner notice has been issued. The possible role of Romi is also being examined in targeted killings in Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
Prem Singh alias Prema Lahoriya, another ‘A’ category gangster having a reward of Rs 2 lakh, was also a proclaimed offender wanted in 10 cases of murder, gang-war, jailbreak, extortion, drug smuggling, weapon smuggling, etc. On the statement of Inspector Bikramjit Brar, FIR under Sections 307, 332 and 34 of the IPC and various sections of the Arms Act, was registered at Hindumal Kot police station in Ganganagar (Rajasthan).
