Two held after shootout in Sonepat

Two notorious criminals, who were involved in at least six criminal activities, including the killing of a man in Sonepat’s Baroda area last week, were arrested from near Rohna village in Sonepat in the wee hours on Thursday after a brief exchange of fire with the police.

Both the criminals- Sandeep alias Bhinda of Chhichhrana village and Deepak, a resident of Ridhana village in Sonepat, suffered bullet injuries in their legs and are undergoing treatment at a civil hospital in Sonepat’s Kharkhoda. The police have recovered two pistols and a bike from the criminals, who were carrying a bounty of ₹20,000 each on their head. According to police, Sandeep was out on bail in a murder case and Deepak was involved in cases of theft, looting and other offences.

Sonepat DCP (crime) Narinder Kadian said that both the criminals executed several criminal activities on the intervening night of April 16-17.

“The duo had tried to snatch a bike from Garhal resident Naresh on the same night and when he resisted, they ran a Swift car over him. The same night, they snatched a tractor-trolley loaded with wheat from a farmer, Sahil, of Garhal village near Kohla village,” the DSP added.

According to police officials, one of the criminals fled with the tractor while the other was driving the car.

“When they reached near a school in Kohla village, the assailants driving the tractor tried to run over a bike-borne man, Joginder. They then rammed the tractor into a liquor vend in the same village and later fled in the swift car,” said a police official.

On April 18, the criminals tried to extort ₹50 lakh from a farmer, Ravinder, of Chhichhrana village.

DSP Kadian said that they identified the criminals with the help of CCTV cameras installed at the liquor vend in Kohla village in the district, adding six teams were formed to arrest them.

“We got a tip-off about their movement in the Kharkhoda area. When our teams asked them to stop the bike near Rohna village, they tried to run away. The duo fired shots at our team and in retaliation cops fired shots at them which hit their legs,” the DSP added.

He further said that the swift car used in the crime on the intervening night of April 16-17 was snatched by the criminals from a man in Delhi.

“After executing crime in Sonepat, they went to Gurugram. On Wednesday, they looted a bike at gunpoint from a man near Pataudi in Gurugram and at some distance they parked the car and came on a bike. We arrested them today and seized the stolen bike and two pistols from them. During investigation, the duo confessed to executing crimes with an intention to become rich,” the DSP added.