After a three-week-long operation, the Jalandhar Rural Police have successfully busted an extortion and arms smuggling racket affiliated to the Pinda Gang with the arrest of all the 13 gang members— all are trained shooters and six others involved in harboring and providing logistic support, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Swapan Sharma here on Friday.
A close aide of Gangster Vicky Gounder, Palwinder Singh alias Pinda, whose role was also emerged in the Nabha Jail break, is said to be the Kingpin of the gang and was apparently handling the gang with the help of Paramjit alias Pamma, a native of Shahkot, Jalandhar and currently residing in Greece.
The 13 arrested shooters have been identified as Sunil Masih @ Jeuna, Ravinder @ Ravi, Pradeep Singh, Manjinder @ Shavi, and Sukhman Singh @ Subha, all of Lohian, Jalandhar; Sandeep @ Dilli, Major Singh, Aprail Singh @ Shera, Balwinder @ Guddha and Salinder Singh, all of Nakodar, Jalandhar; Satpal @ Satta of Makhu, Ferozepur; Devinderpal Singh @ Deepu and Satwant Singh @ Jagga of Shahkot, Jalandhar.
All these arrested persons are history-sheeters and have been facing criminal cases of heinous crimes including murder, attempt to murder, extortion, and arms smuggling.While, six other persons, who were arrested for harboring and providing logistic support, have been identified as Amarjeet alias Amar of Dharamkot, Balbir Masih, Erik and Badal, trio residents of Lohian, Harwinder Singh of Shahkot, and Bachittar Singh of Kapurthala.
The police have also recovered nine weapons including Seven .32 bore Pistols, Three .315 bore Pistols, one .315 bore gun, and one .12 bore gun, and two vehicles including Toyota Innova and Mahindra XUV 500, besides, foreign currency amounting to Rs 8 lakhs from their possession.
The SSP said that Paramjit alias Pamma used to finance the gang and used to send foreign currency via Hawala to Amarjit alias Amar, who further used to distribute among the gang members to carry out various criminal activities.
He said that the gang is active for the last six years and has been involved in organized extortion, armed highway robbery, land mafia and weapon smuggling from Madhya Pradesh.“With the arrest of this group, the Police have also been able to crack three blind cases of including murder, extortion, and Highway Armed Robbery occurred in Jalandhar and Bathinda,” said Swapan Sharma, while adding that of total 19 arrested persons, at least 12 were wanted by the Police in eight criminal cases.