Main shooter behind Dera follower held after brief encounter in Rajasthan

A suspected shooter involved in the murder of a Dera Sacha Sauda follower was arrested following a brief encounter in a joint operation by Punjab and Rajasthan police in Jaipur on Sunday, officials said.

The main shooter, identified as Ramjan Khan alias Raj Hooda, was injured in his leg in the shoot-out, said Promod Ban, head of the anti-gangster task force of the Punjab police.

In Jaipur, additional DCP (East) Avanish Sharma said that Hooda was hiding in a flat with two others.

“The accused opened fire at police personnel during the raid prompting the police to retaliate. In the exchange of fire, he was injured and has been hospitalised,” he said.

The police also arrested his two accomplices identified as Happy Mehla (19) and Sahil Mehla (18), both residents of Hanumangarh in Rajasthan.

Two pistols including a Chinese-made Star .30 caliber and .32 caliber were also recovered from their possession, said Punjab director general of police Gaurav Yadav.

The operation was conducted in coordination with central agencies and Rajasthan police, said Yadav.

Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep Singh, an accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, was shot dead by six assailants in his shop at Kotkapura in Faridkot in Punjab on November 10.

Five shooters have already been arrested in this case.

Three of them including two minors were nabbed by the special cell of the Delhi police while two were arrested by the Punjab police.

ADGP Ban said that Hooda was the main shooter involved in the murder of the Dera Sacha Sauda follower.

“We will question him in detail once we bring him here (Punjab),” said Ban.

DGP Yadav said acting on intelligence inputs, teams from AGTF headed by Additional Director General of Police Pramod Ban under the supervision of Assistant Inspector General Sandeep Goel followed the trail of the accused.

After collecting vital clues, the AGTF teams led by deputy superintendent of police Bikram Brar and DSP Rajan Parminder managed to trace his location in a building at Vinayak Enclave Colony in Jaipur, where he was holed up with his two accomplices in rented accommodation, said the DGP.

He said investigations are on to establish the role of the two accomplices.

The police said they had been on his trail for the past many days.

The alleged shooter kept on changing his hideouts, said Ban.

Hooda moved from Chandigarh to Hisar and then came back to Chandigarh, and on Saturday, he reached Jaipur, said Ban.

Despite having Punjab police protection, Pardeep was killed by six assailants in his dairy shop in Kotkapura in Faridkot.

His security man and another person had sustained bullet injuries in the incident.

Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar had claimed responsibility for the killing in a purported social media post. Brar is also the main accused in the murder case of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was shot dead in May.

The police had on Saturday said that from the interrogation and evidence collected so far, involvement of Brar has been established beyond doubt in the murder case.

He was the key conspirator in this case, the police had said.