5 days ago
Ludhiana firing linked to California gangster; 2 held, Rs 50 lakh extortion call probed
LUDHIANA: As Ludhiana rural police arrested two sharpshooters for firing at a hardware store owner at Rumi near Jagraon and suspected the involvement of a California-based gangster in the case, the police on Sunday confirmed that Pavittar Singh Batala has been named in the case.
Police officials shared that Pavittar Singh, who is allegedly linked with Babbar Khalsa International and is wanted by the National Investigating Agency (NIA), was among eight arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as part of raids against an international terror network in the United States recently.
On January 18 evening, Ludhiana rural police disclosed that they captured 23-year-old Nanak Ram of Anandana village in Sangrur and Deepu Singh of Chatha Govindpur, both accused of firing at
Jatinder Singh
, a hardware dealer at Rumi village near Jagraon, on July 5.
SSP Ludhiana rural, Dr Ankur Gupta, confirmed that Pavittar Singh has been named as an accused in the case. He suggested that the caller, who called the store owner of Rumi two days after firing on him, introduced himself as Pavittar Singh Batala while making the extortion call.
A police official among the investigators said that Pavittar Batala was booked under section 308 of BNS (extortion) around two days after the extortion call as the voice sounded to be his.
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He added that in the call, the suspect is allegedly heard telling the shopkeeper that he got away this time but wouldn't be spared next time, and the caller demanded extortion money of Rs. 50 Lakhs.
The police official further said that Pavittar Singh Batala will be questioned in the case once he is extradited to India. He added that as per reports, he was arrested in California on July 10 or 11, and on July 7, he allegedly made a WhatsApp call to the Rumi-based shopkeeper.
The police official maintained that as per the preliminary probe, Pavittar Singh Batala might have hired two sharpshooters, arrested recently by Ludhiana rural police, through Serbia-based Lovepreet Singh Lovely, who belongs to Hariau Khurd in the Batala area.
He added that they suspect the involvement of Rupinder Singh, a US-based brother-in-law of shopkeeper Jatinder Singh, from Tarewal in Moga, who blames the latter for his divorce from his sister.
Police sources said that Rupinder is an NRI in the US and is a rich person with contacts.
They added that Rupinder also faces allegations of giving a contract to contract killers for getting his brother-in-law Jatinder killed in 2019 and was also named in two more FIRs lodged by the shopkeeper and his family in January and July this year.
Meanwhile, SSP Ludhiana rural said that one of the sharpshooters, Nanak Ram, has three cases against him, including a liquor peddling case. He added that police are scanning the records to determine whether the other accused, Deepu Singh, has a previous criminal history.
