According to the police, Harvinder and Malha are members of the Kaushal-Daggar gang which is active in Delhi, Haryana and western UP.
The Punjab Police on Sunday arrested five more people in connection with the murder of international Kabaddi player Sandeep Singh. Singh was shot dead by five unidentified assailants in the middle of a kabaddi tournament in Jalandhar in March. A total of nine arrests have been made in this case so far, police said.
Jalandhar-Rural Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Swapan Sharma said that seven pistols including five foreign-made .30 bore pistols and three vehicles have been recovered from the possession of the arrested persons. Police have identified the arrested persons as Harvinder Singh alias Fauji of Bulandshahr, UP; Vikas Malhe of Gurgaon, Haryana; Sachin Dhaulia of Alwar, Rajasthan; An official statement quoting the SSP said Manjot Kaur of Sangrur and Yadwinder Singh of Pilibhit in UP said.
The SSP said Harvinder, who was nabbed from a village near Bulandshahr in UP, is the main coordinator in the murder, who provided weapons to the sharpshooter, and logistical support including training in handling of stampede vehicles, safe houses and weapons. Harvinder also provided financial support and helped organize Reiki for the execution of the crime.
Sharma said that another accused, chief shooter Vikas Malhe, was tasked to identify and train the shooters, and later, he also went on to commit the murders with Harvinder. During the investigation, Malha also disclosed his role in two other murder cases in Punjab in which the police were not aware of his involvement, the official said.
According to the police, Harvinder and Malha are members of the Kaushal-Daggar gang which is active in Delhi, Haryana and western UP. Another accused, Yadvinder Singh, was acting as a mediator between the gang members, he said. Giving more details, the SSP said that Sachin Dhaulia and Manjot Kaur have been arrested for sheltering and providing safe passage to the gang members.
He said that in the last three weeks, the police have identified and raided 18 places used as hideouts by the members of this gang and named several people in the case. On March 19, the police claimed to have solved the murder case with the arrest of the four main conspirators, identified as Fateh Singh alias Yuvraj, a resident of Sangrur; Kaushal Choudhary of Naharpur Roopa in Gurgaon; Amit Dagar of Maheshpur Palwan village in Haryana; and Simranjit Singh alias Jujhar Singh of Madhopur village in Pilibhit, UP. Police said Yadvinder is a close associate of Jujhar Singh.
According to the statement, Harvinder is the chief coordinator of the Kaushal-Daggar gang and is facing at least 21 criminal cases related to murder, armed robbery and extortion in different districts of western UP and Haryana. The statement said that he was a fugitive offender in several cases registered against him. Nine criminal cases related to murder and extortion are registered against Malhe in Haryana.
According to the statement, Malhe was involved in the murder of Sukhmeet Singh, a transporter who was shot dead in June 2021 in Jalandhar city. In January 2022, two persons Manpreet Challa and Manpreet Vicky, both associates of slain gangster Kulveer Naruana. He was shot dead in Bathinda. Police said that during interrogation of Malhe, it was found that he had committed and carried out both these murders to avenge the arrest of gangster Fateh Nagri, who was lodged in another jail in Sangrur.
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