Three wanted by 4 states for Patiala shootout held

PATIALA: Two days after three members of the Bishnoi-Sampat gang had managed to give Punjab Police the slip during a shootout in Ranjit Nagar area of the city, the special teams working on the case managed to nab them near Dhubla village on the Punjab-Haryana border. They were arrested in a late night operation on Sunday.

The cops have also recovered the hatchback that was snatched by two of these gangsters at gunpoint near Thapar Institute on Friday evening. Two countrymade pistols were also seized.

Those arrested include Navpreet Singh alias Nav Lahoria, a resident of Jatta Patti village under Samana subdivision of Patiala district; Ankur Singh alias Mani from Patiala district; and Prashant alias Chhotu from Hassupur village under Hapur district in Uttar Pradesh.

Lahoria had come in contact with gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Sampat Nehra in 2016, while the three were lodged in jail and after coming out of the prison, he stayed in touch with two gangsters and gradually brought together their henchmen and started calling the shots in the Bishnoi-Sampat gangs that carried out extortions and murders in four states including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. At least 17 cases are registered against the gang in these states.

With Bishnoi in Bharatpur jail in Rajasthan and Sampat in Faridkot jail, Lahoria was the acting kingpin of joint gangs and mostly active in areas around Sonipat and Delhi.

Patiala SSP M S Sidhu said the three gangsters were identified after the police nabbed two of their accomplices following the Saturday evening shootout. The two, who were arrested then, had been identified as Dalvir Singh alias Mani of Samana and Navneet Singh alias Navi of Himmatpur village in Kaithal district of Haryana. The police had also recovered two guns from them.

Sidhu said during preliminary questioning of the accused it emerged that they were under the spell of ‘gun culture’ and lived exuberant lives for which they would commit the crimes. Nav Lahoria was also fond of singing and had recently got a song filmed on himself and was planning to come out with another Punjabi number soon.

During investigations, it came to light that Lahoria held a diploma in electronics while Ankur alias Mani (23) and Chhotu (23) were plus two dropouts. 21-year-old Navneet and 23-year-old Dalvir Singh had dropped out of college after taking admission in BA. Ankur had participated in a number of national-level school athletic competitions before he took to life of crime after coming in contact with Lahoria and others. It was Ankur and Chottu who had snatched the car.