Bathinda: Family members of gangsters killed in an encounter at Gulabgarh village near here on Friday have raised a question mark over the operation carried out by the police.
Two gangsters Prabhdeep Singh of Mamu Khera village near Abohar in Fazilka district and Manpreet Singh of Abohar were killed. Their accomplice Amritpal Singh sustained a bullet injury while two others Harwinder Singh and Gurwinder Singh were arrested. Earlier in the day, they had snatched a Toyota Fortuner at gunpoint.
Prabhdeep's wife Abrin Kaur (25) said, "My husband was not gangster and had nothing to do with Vicky Gounder. He had only one case against him though he might have been friends with some persons in bad company. The police should not have killed him but should have made him surrender if he had done anything wrong."
Manpreet's mother Jaswinder Kaur (50) said, "Manna was not a gangster and faced two cases of causing hurt and theft, which are crimes of small nature. The police should arrest hardcore gangsters and have killed my son. We will approach the court with a complaint that both Manpreet and Prabhdeep have been wrongly killed."
Meanwhile, the police produced Harwinder and Gurwinder in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate Gurdarshan Singh at Talwandi Sabo, where both were sent to five-day police remand.
Bathinda SSP Naveen Singla refuted the charges of the families of killed gangsters. He said, "The encounter took place after gangsters fired at the police party. We have immediately informed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Punjab State Human Rights Commission as per guidelines of the Supreme Court regarding the encounter and had asked the DC to order a magisterial inquiry, which he marked immediately. The police always wanted to arrested the gangsters but as they continued firing they were killed in retaliatory fire. We followed every guideline needed after such incidents."
