According to police, Harwinder and Malhe are members of the Kaushal-Daggar gang which is active in Delhi, Haryana and western UP.
The Punjab police on Sunday arrested five more persons in the murder of Sandeep Singh, an international kabaddi player. Singh was shot dead in the middle of a kabaddi tournament by five unidentified assailants in Jalandhar in March. Police stated that until now a total of nine arrests have been made in relation to this case.
Swapan Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Jalandhar-Rural said that seven pistols, including five foreign-made .30 bore pistols, and three vehicles were recovered from the possession of those who have been arrested. Police identified the arrested persons as Harwinder Singh alias Fauji of Bulandshahr, UP; Vikas Malhe of Gurgaon, Haryana; Sachin Dhaulia of Alwar, Rajasthan; Manjot Kaur of Sangrur, and Yadwinder Singh of Pilibhit, UP, an official statement quoting the SSP said.
The SSP said Harwinder, who was nabbed from a village near Bulandshahr in UP, is the main coordinator in this killing, who also provided logistics support, including weapons to sharpshooters, and getaway vehicles, safe houses, and training in weapon handling. Harwinder also provided financial support and helped organize recce for the execution of the crime.
Sharma said that another accused, Vikas Malhe, the main shooter, was tasked to identify and train the shooters, and later, he also accompanied Harwinder to commit the murder. During the investigation, Malhe also revealed his role in two other murder cases in Punjab, in which his involvement was not known to police, the officer added.
According to police, Harwinder and Malhe are members of the Kaushal-Daggar gang which is active in Delhi, Haryana and western UP. Another accused Yadwinder Singh was working as a mediator between the gang members, they said. Divulging more details, the SSP said that Sachin Dhaulia and Manjot Kaur were arrested for harbouring the members of the gang and providing them safe passage.
In the past three weeks, police have identified and raided as many as 18 locations used as hideouts by the members of this gang and nominated several persons in this case, he added. On March 19, police had claimed to have solved the murder case with the arrests of four main conspirators identified as Fateh Singh alias Yuvraj, a resident of Sangrur; Kaushal Chaudhary of Naharpur Roopa in Gurgaon; Amit Dagar of Maheshpur Palvan village in Haryana; and Simranjeet Singh alias Jujhar Singh of Madhopur village in UP’s Pilibhit. Yadwinder is a close associate of Jujhar Singh, police said.
According to the statement, Harwinder is the main coordinator of Kaushal-Daggar gang and facing at least 21 criminal cases pertaining to murder, armed dacoity and extortion in various districts of western UP and Haryana. He was a proclaimed offender in several cases registered against him, it said. Malhe has nine criminal cases pertaining to murder and extortion registered against him in Haryana.
As per the statement, Malhe was involved in the murder of Sukhmeet Singh, a transporter, who was shot dead in Jalandhar city in June 2021. In January 2022, two persons namely Manpreet Challa and Manpreet Vicki, both associates of a slain gangster Kulvir Naruana, were shot dead in Bathinda. The questioning of Malhe revealed that these two killings were also organized and executed by him to avenge the arrest of Fateh Nagri, another jailed gangster of Sangrur, police said.
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