Mohali, November 21: The Mohali police got major success with the arrest of five members of the Lawrence Bishnoi-Sampla Nehra gang after an exchange of fire in broad daylight in a residential area of Dwarka in New Delhi today.
It took the Mohali police, accompanied by the Delhi Police, half an hour to nab the gangsters, identified as Deepak from Hisar, Sumit from Barwana, Tiku from Delhi and Krishan and Sunil, both from Jhajjar.
Sources said at least two miscreants (one of them believed to be Sampla Nehra) managed to escape from the clutches of the police.
The kingpin of the gang, Lawrence Bishnoi, is already in jail. Sampla Nehra was running the activities of the gang in his absence. Nine shots were fired by the criminals while the Mohali police fired 12 shots in retaliation. Nobody was injured in the firing, said the police.
The police recovered 17 firearms (five .32 bore pistols, five .315 bore pistols, five .22 bore pistols, one .315 bore rifle and one .12 bore rifle) with 112 cartridges from the possession of the miscreants, who are said to be in their mid-20s.
Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal said the gangsters were involved in at least five major cases, including the murder of Daljit Singh Walia, aka Prince, husband of a councillor at Banur; a carjacking incident by opening fire at Dera Bassi after the murder of the councillor; helping their accomplice, an under trial, escape from a Panchkula hospital; opening fire at two residents at Zirakpur on December 30; and an attempt-to-murder case at Dera Bassi on March 7 this year. The SSP said they were hopeful of solving many more cases of heinous crime with the arrest of the dreaded gangsters.
The police had a tip-off about the hideout of the gangsters in a residential area of Dwarka in Delhi following which a team of 15 officials of the Mohali police was constituted.
The team, comprising of Mohali DSP (Investigation) Kanwaljit Singh, Inspector Tarlochan Singh, in-charge CIA, Mohali, Inspector Manjit Singh and others, left Mohali around 1.30 am today.
The sources said the operation started around 11 am and lasted half an hour. “Our team reached the destination around 6 am. Members took positions and kept a watch on the house in which the miscreants were putting up for a few hours before starting the operation. Residents were asked to remain indoors. As soon as the police asked the miscreants to surrender, they started firing. After an exchange of fire for a few minutes, the miscreants came out of the house and started running in different directions while firing shots. The team members nabbed them,” said the sources.
“An FIR has been lodged in this regard at the area police station in New Delhi. The Delhi Police will produce the gangsters before the court tomorrow. Then we will bring them on production warrants here,” said the SSP.
Involvement in criminal cases
Murder of Daljit Singh, aka Prince, husband of a councillor at Banur, on September 6, 2017, and a carjacking incident in Dera Bassi. Prince was shot dead by four persons at a park in Banur in the evening. The miscreants fled in a car from the spot and then forcibly took away another car, a Swift Dzire, from Dera Bassi around 10.30 pm after pumping a bullet in the thigh of the car owner, Major Singh.
Escape of undertrial from the General Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula. In the case, three armed miscreants managed to free the undertrial, admitted to the hospital, after opening fire into the air and using pepper spray on the hospital staff on June 17 this year. The undertrial was identified as Deepak Kumar. However, the miscreants failed to get another undertrial, Mohit, freed from there. Both undertrials, accused in a robbery case, were brought from Ambala Central Jail to the hospital for treatment.
The Zirakpur police had booked Sampat Nehra and three others for opening fire at Satwinder Singh and Kulwant Singh on December 30 last year.
