FARIDKOT: With the arrest of two key operatives of Gangster-turned-Terrorist Arsh Dalla for their involvement in Gurpreet Singh Hari Nau's murder, Punjab Police have thwarted at least four more possible target killings and solved three sensational crimes including a killing in Madhya Pradesh. The operation was jointly carried out by the State Special Operations Cell (SSOC) Mohali, Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) and Faridkot District Police.
The development came in less than a month after the arrest of three members of the reccee module in this case.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Faridkot Dr Pragya Jain has identified the arrested persons as Anmolpreet Singh alias Vishal, a resident of Bhadorh in Barnala and Navjot Singh alias Neetu, a resident of Nijjar road in Kharar. Police teams have also arrested their accomplice identified as Balvir Singh alias Kalu, who is brother shooter Navjot Singh, for aiding and abetting the criminals. All the arrested persons have criminal history.
Police teams have also recovered two sophisticated pistols— including One Pistol Zigana 9mm along with seven live cartridges and one .30 Bore pistol along with four live cartridges, ₹27, 500, and a fake Aadhar Card, being used to commit different crimes.
As per the information, Gurpreet Singh Hari Nau alias Bhodi was shot dead on October 9, 2024 while returning back home from the village Gurudwara Sahib on his motorcycle Hero Splendour bearing registration number PB-04U-3258.
SSP Dr Pragya Jain said that preliminary investigations have revealed that Arsh Dalla tasked Navjot alias Neetu to target Gurpreet Singh Hari Nau, who runs a youtube channel under the name of “Hari Nau Talks”. Arsh Dalla shared the required information of Gurpreet Hari Nau with Navjot alias Neetu and asked him to rope in more associates to execute the task, she said, while adding that to accomplish the task Navjot alias Neetu involved his associate Anmolpreet Singh alias Vishal.
She said that Arsh Dalla provided one Glock Pistol along with ammunition and a motorcycle to the arrested accused persons and on October 9, 2024, both the arrested accused went to Village Hari Nau and shot dead Gurpreet Singh Hari Nau.
The SSP said that investigations have revealed that both the shooters were provided hideouts by Arsh Dalla. After commission of crime, the shooters were constantly on the move and changed several hideouts at various cities including Amritsar, SBS Nagar, Himachal-Punjab Border, Chandigarh, Mohali and Kharar. In between Arsh Dalla provided both the shooters with heroin and finance in cash form which they retrieved mostly from public places at Mohali.
She said that investigations have also revealed that the accused also killed Jaswant Singh Gill on Thursday, in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh under directions from Arsh Dalla. The person killed was already a convicted criminal for life imprisonment, out on parole for 15 days when he was killed by both shooters. An FIR 756 dt 8/11/24 U/S 103(1) , 3(5) BNS PS Dabra Madhya Pradesh was registered in this regard.
Both suspects then returned to Punjab from Madhya Pradesh after committing the crime, where they were apprehended near Kharar in a joint operation of Faridkot Police with SSOC Mohali & AGTF.
In addition to this, these accused were involved in a firing and extortion incident at Zirakpur on October 18, where a Business man was threatened after firing and a poster at the main entrance with names Arsh Dalla written on it. Upon reviewing CCTV footage from a nearby house, it was found that two individuals arrived on a bike. The footage shows them firing shots and placing the aforementioned poster. An FIR No 470 U/S 308, 25, 27 BNS has been registered at Police Station Zirakpur was registered in this regard.
During investigations, information relating to wider conspiracy to target more individuals was received and was probed diligently, said Dr Pragya Jain, while adding that with their arrest at least four target killings of prominent persons in major cities has been averted.
A case FIR No. 159 dated 10-10-2024 had already been registered under sections 103 (1), 126 (2) and 3 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station Kotkapura.