Chandigarh: In a daring daylight murder Wednesday, unidentified assailants barged into the front yard of 45-year-old Paramjit Singh’s house in Bardeke village in Jagraon and shot him dead. According to a family member, one assailant shot Paramjit twice, in the chest and head, killing him on the spot. Two others helped the killer escape.
A day after, Canada-based gangster Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dalla claimed responsibility for the killing in an unverified Facebook post.
The chilling CCTV footage of the incident has gone viral on social media and the opposition has once again trained their guns on the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab.
Several persons were detained Saturday after the Punjab police raided suspected hideouts of persons linked with Dalla.
During the year-end press meet Monday, Punjab police spokesperson inspector general (headquarters) Sukhchain Singh Gill told media persons that an Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) was created in April last year.
Since its inception, the AGTF had busted 111 gangster/criminal modules and arrested 428 gangsters or criminals and neutralised two, he said. Gill added that more than 400 weapons had been recovered from them along with almost 100 vehicles used in various crimes. Over 43 kgs of heroin had also been recovered from these criminals.
But despite all their efforts it seems that the police are fighting a losing battle. ThePrint looks at five possible reasons.
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Jails as hotbeds of gang activity
Gangsters who are either convicted or under trial are lodged in various jails across Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.
“Mingling of gangsters in jails is leading to interstate networking. When gangsters from different states come together in let’s say a central jail like the Tihar they start sharing resources, hit men, communication networks, weapons and hideouts. A gang is then not just limited to a state or an area within a state. It becomes an interstate gang,” Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, assistant inspector general, AGTF told ThePrint.
Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi who has been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail since 2021 allegedly masterminded the killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala from jail. Some of the shooters tasked with the job were from Maharashtra.
In the case of the killing of Pardeep Kumar, a follower of Ram Rahim led-Dera Sacha Sauda and accused in the 2015 sacrilege cases, in Kotkapura last year, four of the six shooters were from Haryana.
“Small-time criminals who might be in jail for crimes like theft, chain snatching are pulled into gangs allured with weapons, money and even promise of settlement abroad,” said a senior member of the AGTF.
Despite huge recoveries of mobile phones from Punjab jails, the authorities are dealing with an almost endless stream of phones. In October, Punjab jails minister Harjot Singh Bains said that 3,600 mobile phones had been recovered in jails in the past six months.
“For criminals to plan and execute a crime from inside jail comes with an additional benefit — it is almost impossible for the prosecution to prove in the courts that a conspiracy was hatched in jail and the gang leader himself is involved,” said Chauhan.
Foreign nations a safe haven
Police are finding it difficult to break the entire gang network because key links and gang leaders are hiding in countries like Canada, USA, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia.
Satinderjit Singh alias Goldy Brar, a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, has been openly claiming responsibility for murders in Punjab. He was believed to be operating from Canada. Last month it was reported that he had been detained by the American authorities following the intervention of the Indian government.
Cocking a snook at Indian claims, a couple of days later Brar however claimed in an interview that he had never been detained nor arrested and that he had left Canada long ago and was in Europe now.
Apart from Brar, Lakhbir Singh alias Landa Harike, Ramandeep Singh alias Raman Judge, and Charanjit Singh alias Rinku Randhawa as well as Arsh Dalla are hiding in Canada to avoid arrest in India. Gaurav alias Lucky Patial is believed to be in Europe. Ramanjit Singh alias Romi is in Hong Kong. Extradition proceedings are pending against all.
“The process of extradition and deportation is long and winding. After red corner notices are issued the criminal has to be located in a country. Once located, in most countries he can only be detained for 48 hours during which Indian authorities have to move the court to seek his custody,” said Chauhan.
Extradition proceedings must begin within a month of the criminal being detained, he said, adding that by the time all this happens the criminal gets his act together and gets legal help and tries to stay back in the country, sometimes seeking asylum or in some cases shifting his base.
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Increased weaponisation
According to the police, both the quality and the number of weapons available to gangsters have increased sharply over the past few years.
A Rupnagar police team arrested six members of gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria’s gang Tuesday and recovered 12 pistols and 50 live cartridges. They were operating a weapon and drug smuggling racket.
Last month, the police arrested an interstate gun smuggler Bunty from Zirakpur with 20 pistols. “Of these 15 were Indian-made pistols with 40 live cartridges and 11 magazines, all from Madhya Pradesh,” Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, DIG Rupnagar range told ThePrint.
Chauhan said that earlier weapons used to be handmade and the most commonly available was the desi katta or crude pistol.
“A desi katta was generally procured from UP or Bihar. Since these used to be very basic they were capable of a single shot and in many cases, the pistol would not even fire at all or get stuck,” he said.
But now crude weapons are made in factories and have improved significantly. “The weapons are not just well designed but can fire multiple shots with reduced reloading time,” said Chauhan.
Punjab director general of police Gaurav Yadav while addressing a press conference last month said Indian-made weapons are largely coming from Madhya Pradesh but gangsters are also procuring smuggled imported weapons.
While the most commonly used is an AK 47 assault rifle generally smuggled through Nepal, more sophisticated imported weapons are also being used. Investigations into Moosewala’s killing revealed that at least one of the shooters had used an AN-94 Russian assault rifle.
Weapons are also literally falling from the skies, via drones from across the border, complicating the situation further. “Last year there were two to three drone crossings a month. Now there is a drone crossing almost every day. There have been more than 225 drone crossings in 2022. Since the payload is limited these are largely used to drop weapons and drugs,” said Yadav during the presser.
High-tech communication channels
The police are also finding it difficult to trace the communication networks among gangsters because of the use of high-tech software that encrypts messages or allows completely private calling.
“Apart from virtual private networks, gangsters are using specialised apps to communicate with one another, plan and execute crimes. It’s almost impossible to trace these communications,” said Chauhan.
He said traditional methods of intelligence gathering through intercepting calls are outdated now. “A lot depends on how cooperative the company – whose app is used for communication by criminals – is towards police work. Most of these are located outside India and our experience is most do not share information,” he added.
Apart from claiming responsibility for crimes, gangsters are also using social media to communicate with each other. “They use social media to glorify their deeds, seek legitimacy for themselves and threaten others. We used to trace the social media messages and IP addresses to gather additional evidence against them,” said a senior officer working with the AGTF.
But then courts have made it clear to us that such messages posted on social media accounts cannot be conclusively attributed to the gangster and used as evidence, Chauhan said.
Lack of strong laws and legal hurdles
Although there is no specific data available about the conviction rate of gangsters in Punjab, police sources admit they have a hard time taking the cases registered against gangsters to their logical conclusion.
In June last year, it was reported that of the 36 cases registered against Bishnoi, he had been acquitted in nine due to lack of evidence or witnesses turning hostile.
“Witnesses turning hostile is one of the most common reasons why gangsters get acquitted in many cases. Gangsters manage to scare the witnesses,” said Chauhan.
When the AGTF was formed in Punjab, its head Pramod Ban had told media persons that the Punjab government will soon come up with a Witness Protection Act as well push for an act to counter organised crime on the lines of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act 1994 (MCOCA).
A draft of the Punjab act — Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act was prepared in 2016 but it is yet to get approval.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
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