Mohali: 3 Haryana gangsters held in Zirakpur robbery case

A week after two masked men robbed a jewellery shop in Lohgarh, Zirakpur, at gunpoint in broad daylight, the Zirakpur police arrested three members of a Haryana-based gang, including two history-sheeters involved in murder, extortion and dacoity cases, on Sunday.

Police recovered two sophisticated illegal pistols from the accused, a .32 bore (Llama-Spain) and 30 bore (Px6-Italy made) pistol, besides 22 live cartridges and a stolen bike used in the crime.

Police said the accused are members of Haryana-based Shani Dev alias Kuki gang and they wanted money to buy sophisticated and automatic weapons to eliminate the leader of their rival gang, Rakesh Pampu of Panipat, who recently came out on bail.

The accused were identified as gangsters Gagandeep Singh alias Fauji, a native of Mansa, currently residing in Zirakpur besides Mahesh Sharma and Rahul Vaid of Ambala, Haryana.

According to the police, both Gagandeep and Vaid had robbed the jewellery shop after firing two gunshots inside the shop and Sharma helped them to escape in his Verna car.

A team led by Manpreet Singh, SP, Rural, DSP Jaspinder Singh Gill and Zirakpur SHO Jaskanwal Sekhon nabbed the accused.

Mohali SSP Deepak Pareek said Fauji recently came out of Patiala jail on bail and was earlier involved in 10 criminal cases in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The SSP added that gangster Vaid was also booked in over eight cases in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Vaid was held after a joint operation by Zirakpur and Panchkula police where he tried to run over a Haryana cop with his car and was taken in police custody by Panchkula police after registering an attempt to murder case at Pinjore police station.

Police said that Gagandeep wanted to eliminate Rakesh Pampu, who was out on bail and has over 20 criminal cases against him, to avenge the murder of his friend and brother of Shani Dev, Sukhwinder Narwal.

According to sources, a member of the Kuki gang delivered two weapons at the house of a female friend of Gagandeep in Pabhat.

As the gang needed more automatic weapons to eliminate their target, they decided to rob a jewellery shop in Lohgarh following which both Gagandeep and Vaid stole a bike from a hospital in Ambala on October 6.

After planning the crime, Gagandeep parked his Hyundai i10 car at his female friend’s house and accompanied Vaid to the jewellery shop on the stolen bike.

After they robbed the jewellery shop and fired two gunshots inside the shop, they escaped from there on the bike. However, no one was hurt in the firing.

The accused abandoned the bike and Vaid fled towards Haryana in Sharma’s Verna car and Gagandeep reached the house of his female friend in Pabhat.

Karwa Chauth celebrations lands one of the accused in police net

While tracing the escape route of the accused, police got to know that Ganagdeep entered the house of his female friend whom he was planning to marry soon. He later left her house in his car.

“We knew that he would return to meet his friend on Karwa Chauth and thus we laid a trap. When he reached there to meet her, we immediately nabbed him. On his disclosure we arrested Sharma and later nabbed Vaid with the help of Panchkula police,” an investigator said.