Aide of gangster Bhagwanpuria hurt in Jalandhar encounter

Jaskaran, alias Kannu Gujjar, said to be key aide of jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, suffered bullet injuries during an encounter in Jalandhar on Tuesday afternoon. Commissioner of police Swapan Sharma said Kannu Gujjar, a right-hand man of Bhagwanpuria, was critically injured in the retaliatory fire by the police team.

“A total of nine shots were fired from both sides. Gujjar was wanted in several cases, including murder and extortion,” Sharma said. The accused was rushed to the civil hospital in Jalandhar where his condition is stated to be critical.

He said Kannu’s movement was being tracked for the past several days. Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested him from Rampur Bilron on Tuesday morning. During preliminary investigation, he confessed that the gang was hatching a conspiracy to commit a major crime in the city for which they had hidden illegal weapons at the back side of Hamilton Tower in the city, the police said.

“The police took him to that location. Upon reaching the spot, Kannu attacked the police party in a bid to flee after which the cops retaliated. During the encounter, Kannu sustained serious injuries,” the police commissioner said.

During the search operation, the police seized two weapons from his possession while six other weapons and 55 live cartridges were seized from other locations as informed by the accused. He said eight FIRs were registered against the arrested gangster in several police stations.

Sharma said that with this arrest, a total of 10 associates of the gang have been arrested and 16 weapons recovered from them.

Hailing from Bhagwanpura village in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, Bhagwanpuria faces more than 100 cases related to illicit arms trade, drug smuggling and attempt to murder in different states of the country.