New Delhi: For nearly two months, Amritsar’s Aditya Kapoor, an alleged shooter in the murder of a kabaddi promoter, seemed to have built a new life for himself in Tripura.
After months on the run, Kapoor, who allegedly shot Kanwar Digvijay Singh alias Rana Balachauria in Mohali in December last year, was working as a driver with one of the biggest taxi operators in Agartala.
But the escape was short-lived: police arrested Kapoor, also known as Makhan, in Agartala on Monday after Punjab’s Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) received a tip-off from central agencies.
Kapoor was wanted by the Punjab Police and was on the radar of the Punjab AGTF as he was allegedly one of the shooters who pumped Balachauria from close range while he attended a kabaddi tournament venue as a chief guest.
The AGTF chief, Promod Ban, said that a team led by DSP Rajan Parminder Singh had launched an inter-state operation, code-named ‘Shadow Hunt’, based on inputs about Makhan’s presence in Agartala, which led to his arrest by a joint team of the Punjab AGTF and the Tripura Police.
“He had started working as a driver with one of the biggest taxi operators in Tripura, run by a woman at a monthly salary of Rs 10,000. He had also taken a rented accommodation after reaching there around two or three months ago,” a Punjab Police officer privy to the investigation told ThePrint.
“Before reaching Tripura and staying there for a considerable period of time, Makhan kept changing locations and also went to Mumbai and Delhi,” the officer added.
The arrest came nearly four months after two other shooters – Karan Pathak, also known as Karan Defaulter, and Tarandeep Singh – were arrested along with their associate, Akashdeep, from Howrah in West Bengal.
Karan was later killed in an encounter that Punjab Police claimed broke out during the process of weapon recovery when he allegedly fired at the police in Mohali district.
“While his accomplices were earlier apprehended by the AGTF, accused Aditya had been absconding and evading arrest until now,” Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav said in a statement.
Yadav added that Makhan’s arrest marked the complete unravelling of the conspiracy.
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Murder trail
According to the police investigation, Balachauria was killed at the direction of foreign-based gangsters Gopi Ghanshampuria and Doni Bal, who is believed to be operating from the United Kingdom.
According to the Punjab Police investigation, the murder was carried out as part of the gangsters’ attempt to retain control over kabaddi operations in the state.
Balachauria was killed on the evening of 15 December, allegedly by the trio of Karan, Makhan and Tarandeep Singh, who fled on a Splendour bike from the site of the murder.
According to the police investigation, they first reached Raipur village in Mohali, from where a man from Panchkula, Davinder Singh, transported them in his Hyundai Aura to Kharar in Mohali.
The Mohali district police arrested Davinder Singh days after the murder, followed by the arrest of one Aishdeep Singh from the Delhi airport when he was allegedly attempting to flee to Muscat.
According to Mohali SSP Harmandeep Singh Hans, Aishdeep returned from Russia on 25 November on Bal’s directions to plan and get the murder executed by the shooters.
According to the police probe, Makhan, along with Davinder and Karan, had scoped out a similar kabaddi tournament in a Fatehgarh Sahib village days before Balachauria’s murder.
A Punjab Police spokesperson said that Makhan had a long criminal history, with at least 17 cases against him in the state under laws ranging from the Arms Act to the NDPS Act.
He has only studied up to class 12 and was first booked by the Punjab Police in 2011.
Of the 17 cases, Makhan was acquitted in three and convicted in three, while one was quashed by the court and another was cancelled by the police themselves.
In November 2024, the Punjab State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) arrested him in connection with the most recent of the cases after allegedly recovering one 9 mm pistol and two 30 bore pistols during patrolling.
The Punjab SSOC had identified him as a member of the gang run by gangsters Gopi Ghanshampuria, Balwinder Singh alias Doni Bal, Manpreet Singh alias Manu, Prabhdeep Singh alias Prabhdasuwal and Ravinder Singh alias Mandeep Singh.
The Punjab SSOC filed a chargesheet against him, but an Amritsar court released him on bail on 16 May last year, observing that he was “entitled” to the relief as the probe was complete, and the trial would take a long time.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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