Cops shoot at gangster as he tries to flee custody

MOHALI: Gangster Karanjit Singh alias Jassa Happowal involved in six murder cases sustained bullet injuries on his legs while attempting to escape from police custody at Peer Muchalla, Zirakpur, said Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav here on Wednesday.

The incident occurred at 10.15 am when a team of the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) of the Punjab Police brought him to an abandoned under-construction building near Hotel Midtown to recover a weapon.

"On reaching the location to recover a Chinese pistol suspected to have been used in the Zirakpur Metro Plaza firing case, the gangster attempted to flee after pushing a cop, which led the AGTF team to open fire," said the DGP, while adding AGTF official ASI Darshan Singh was also injured.

Happowal, the main shooter of absconding foreign-based gangster Rajesh Kumar alias Sonu Khatri and terrorist Harvinder Rinda, was arrested by the counter-intelligence wing of the police from the outskirts of Jalandhar on November 30. He was brought on a production warrant in the Metro Plaza Firing case in which he along with his two associates had allegedly attempted to kill a person on August 21.

The DGP said that the police recovered the Chinese pistol along with five live cartridges.

A fresh case under Sections 186, 353, 224 and 332 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 25 of Arms Act was registered.