Gangster’s operative injured in police encounter; Glock pistol recovered

An operative of foreign-based gangster Mann Ghanshampuria was injured in a brief police encounter during the recovery of weapon at Mehta here on Thursday.

He was identified as Gemanjit Singh, alias Jammu, of Mehta. The police have recovered a Glock pistol from his possession. According to the police, he had shot a motorcycle spare parts trader, identified as Baldev Singh, of Mehta Chowk in February this year.

Aditya S Warrier, Superintendent of Police (Investigations), along with other senior police officials visited the spot. Sharing details, he said the police arrested Germanjit on Tuesday. During his interrogation, he disclosed about concealing a Glock pistol near ‘23 meel’ canal area in Mehta.

“A team of the Mehta police station took him to a place for the recovery of a weapon. However, he pushed the cops and took out the pistol and fired at the police party in an attempt to escape from the police custody. The cops retaliated in self-defence during which he suffered a bullet injury in the leg,” said Warrier, while adding that he was taken to a hospital for treatment while the police recovered a pistol along with magazine and one live round from the scene.

On February 13, Baldev Singh along with Amanbir Singh was injured when motorcycle-borne armed assailants sprinkled bullets at them when he was present in his shop located on Jalandhar Road in Mehta.

He had told the police that he was working just outside his shop while Amanbir Singh and Satnam Singh were standing near him. He said at around 3.15pm, two bike-borne persons with covered faces came from the Batala Road side and fired around five gunshots towards him.

The police said he had received an extortion threat from foreign-based gangster Mann Ghanshampuria around three months ago.

Shamsher Singh, SHO, Mehta police station, said Germanjit was also wanted in the shooting case in which a youth was shot at in Chananke village in January this year.

Earlier, the police had arrested his accomplice Rohit of Mehta on February 25 while he was evading arrest. Rohit was also injured in the police encounter as the police had seized a revolver and two live cartridges from him at that time.

Rohit and Germanjit were introduced to gangsters Mann Ghanshampuria and Balwinder Singh Dony Bal by Arsh Bagga who was also based in a foreign country.

Amritsar