Chandigarh: Kuldeep Singh Bajwa, a constable with the Punjab Police, was killed in Phillaur Sunday night in an exchange of fire between police and four armed robbers. While three of the robbers sustained injuries during the encounter and were arrested, another managed to escape.
This is the second constable to be shot dead by unidentified assailants in the last one month in the state. A 39-year-old cloth merchant, Bhupinder Singh, and his police guard, Mandeep Singh, were killed at Nakodar in December. Bhupinder had claimed to have received extortion calls from gangsters and was given an armed constable for protection.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Monday announced Rs 2 crore to Bajwa’s family for his “sacrifice in the line of duty”.
Salute to martyr Constable Kuldeep Singh Bajwa Belt no. 886/KPT who has made the sacrifice in line of duty. Punjab Government will make Ex Gratia grant of Rs 1 crores. Another Rs 1 crore insurance payment will be made by HDFC Bank.We stand with our martyrs and their families pic.twitter.com/AhOuOVGF2L
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) January 9, 2023
The CM also said that out of this Rs 2 crore, Rs 1 crore will be given as ex-gratia by the state government and another payment of insurance cover worth Rs 1 crore will be made by the HDFC bank. The state government had also announced Rs 2 crore, as ex-gratia and an insurance cover, to Mandeep’s family as well.
According to the police, constable Bajwa, who was posted as gunman with Phagwara (City) SHO Amandeep Singh Nahar, had received information about robbers snatching a Creta car at gunpoint from a bank employee named Avtar Singh, a resident of Urban Estate in Phagwara.
After tracing the location of the vehicle, Bajwa gave the robbers a chase. When the armed assailants were stopped at a floor check point at Dosanjh Road, an exchange of fire took place. Bajwa, along with the injured robbers, were rushed to the Civil Hospital Phillaur where he was declared dead. The injured robbers were shifted to Civil Hospital Jalandhar for treatment.
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