'Vicky Gounder was in touch with Hong Kong-based Sikh radical'

Henry Herrera

Punjab Two gangsters killed in encounter with police

Director General of Police (DGP) of Punjab Suresh Arora said on Saturday that the Punjab police have formed a new Special Task Force called the Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU), to address the issue of gangsters in the state.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh took to Twitter to congratulate Punjab police, "Congratulations to Punjab Police for killing most wanted gangster Vicky Gounder and his aide Prema Lahoriya".

He said acting on the information obtained from arrested criminals and technical inputs, police came to know about the movement of gangsters in five districts of Muktsar, Ferozepur, Abohar in Fazilka, Tarn Taran and Faridkot.

A notorious criminal was injured while another was arrested, they said. "Gounder was also killed inside the house". Gounder was the last of the criminals still absconding after the jail-break. The village is situated almost 50 km from Vicky's native place Sarawan Bodla in Lambi constituency of Muktsar district.

Harjinder Bhullar (27) alias Vicky Gounder was allegedly the mastermind of the sensational high-security Nabha jailbreak in 2016, and had been on the run.

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He was accompanied by five other prisoners, two of which were terrorists, reported IANS.

Punjab Police was chasing for the 28-year-old when they received the information regarding his whereabouts from a reliable source.

Two pistols of.32 bore and one pistol of 0.30 bore, and a large quantity of ammunition were recovered from the slain gangsters, along with mobile phones and dongles, used for communication through social media, police said, adding that a Swift Dzire auto with a fake number plate was recovered from their hideout, besides many more fake number plates. Gounder was wanted in at least 15 cases of murder, kidnapping and robbery in north India.

He was also the prime accused in the murder of rival Sukha Kahlwan when the latter was being taken to jail from court under police escort. In a chilling sequence of events, Gounder reportedly danced around Kahlwan's body and recorded the event in Phagwara.