Amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per the vision of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Police have busted an extortion racket operated by gangster Harry Chattha with the arrest of its key associate identified as Navneet Singh alias Nav of Batala after a brief encounter took place near village Balpurian in Batala, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Saturday.
The Police have also arrested three more people identified as Gagandeep Singh alias Kaala of village Bal in Batala, Balraj Singh alias Baaz of village Amargarh Shahpur in Gurdaspur and Prem Kumar alias Ghulla of village Umarval for their direct involvement, while, other three arrested accused persons identified as Harpreet Singh alias Preet of Majitha Road Amritsar, Sukhraj Singh of village Lakhanpal in Gurdaspur and Darshan Singh alias Darshi of Sudhaar in Jagraon were brought on production warrant from different jails for providing logistic support.
Police teams have also recovered four pistols— including one 9mm Glock pistol and three country-made pistols— along with live cartridges, two motorcycles used in crime and one Hyundai I-20 car from their possession.
DGP Gaurav Yadav said that two cases of extortion were reported in Batala recently wherein members of the Harry Chatha gang had opened fire outside a shop of a travel agent on October 28 and a house of a local businessman on October 7, after victims failed to provide extortion money.
Following the reliable information, Batala Police started chasing the I-20 car and the accused Navneet Singh, driving the car, started firing at the police party, he said, while adding that the Police teams fired back in self-defence, during which, the accused Navneet sustained a bullet injury in his leg.
Accused Navneet has been admitted to the hospital for medical treatment, he added.Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Batala Ashwini Gotyal said that following technical inputs, Police teams have managed to arrest three more persons of this module from different locations for their direct involvement in carrying out the shooting.
Further investigations are on and more arrests are expected soon. A fresh case FIR no 127 dated 3/11/2023 has been registered under sections 307, 353 and 186 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 25 of the Arms Act has been registered at Police Station Sadar Batala.