Two arrested in Gwalior for killing two Punjab Police ASIs

Another associate of theirs, Harcharan Singh, who had allegedly given shelter to them, was also arrested,” Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta said in a written statement.

Gupta added: “Preliminary questioning of the suspects has revealed that on the fateful day while Baljinder had come to Jagraon Grain Market in his canter for providing safe transportation to Jaipal and Jassi to a hideout outside the state. Darshan had met them there with some clothes for the gangster and his associate…The two CIA ASIs, who were on duty, got suspicious after seeing some drugs in the canter vehicle and they confronted the driver.”

According to the DGP: “An apparently cornered Darshan opened fire at the ASIs from his 0.32 revolver and later fled the scene, along with Jaipal and Jassi, in their i10 Hyundai car. Babbi, who fled in the spot in the canter vehicle, joined the others after some distance and they all fled towards Haryana and Rajasthan.”

Gupta said that intelligence inputs were received that the suspects could be in hiding in and around Gwalior, a team from the Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU), led by Inspector Pushpinder Singh, was immediately sent there.

“The OCCU team managed to track the suspects and arrested them from a platform at Dabra railway station near Gwalior last evening. The suspects were planning to board a train to Maharashtra. The arrested duo has a criminal past and both of them had been convicted in two different murder cases earlier. In fact, they had come in contact with each other while undergoing their conviction in jail. While Darshan was granted remission while undergoing his sentence, Baljinder Singh had been released on bail by the (Punjab and Haryana) High court after his conviction by the Sessions court, Moga. Darshan reportedly has two more criminal cases registered against him and was recently also involved in smuggling of opium.”

The DGP said that “Jaipal Bhullar is one of the few gangsters who has managed to elude arrest so far. While he remains at large, his close associate, Gavi, was arrested by Punjab Police from Jamshedpur last month”. Gavi was wanted in the case of recovery of 11 kg heroin in Jalandhar district.

“Both Jaipal and Gavi have close links with drug smugglers based in Pakistan and Jammu. Another associate of theirs, Jaspreet aka Jassi, who is also absconding after the Jagraon shootout, was earlier arrested in a case of smuggling of heroin in Mohali and is also wanted in a case of kidnapping,” said Gupta, adding that “a massive manhunt is still on for the absconding suspects”.

He said rewards of Rs 10 lakh and Rs five lakh have been announced for the arrest of Jaipal Bhullar and Jaspreet aka Jassi Baba, respectively.