The counter-intelligence unit of Delhi Police’s special cell on Friday arrested six members of the Davinder Bambiha gang from the Capital, officials said on Wednesday, adding they recovered sophisticated weapons, grenades and ammunition from the men’s possession.
According to police, the men were involved in an unsuccessful attempt to free an undertrial Ajay alias Sunny from Nalagarh court complex in Solan district in Himachal Pradesh on August 29 when he was brought there for hearing in a case from the Central Jail in Nahan.
Special commissioner of police (special cell) Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal said that while four of the arrested men participated in the unsuccessful attempt, the other two were the firearm supplier and financier. “They have been identified as Vakil alias Billa (24), Vikram Singh alias Vicky (23), Pargat Singh (28), Gurjant Singh (24), Ajay alias Mental (22) and Gagandeep Sharma alias Rahul Pandit (30). While Billa, Vicky, Pargat and Gurjant were the actual participants in the incident at Nalagarh Court, Mental was involved in supply of logistics. Pandit was one of the communication handlers and the go-between the syndicate heads and the foot soldiers.
Dhaliwal said that on August 29, two men opened fire outside the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) in Nalagarh court ostensibly to shoot Sunny dead while he was being escorted by police after his court appearance.
“The men fired a couple of shots in the air and fled with their associates, who were waiting nearby on two motorcycles, as chaos unfolded. This incident raised an alarm in special cell since accused Sunny, who was the apparent target of the armed assault, had been arrested by our counter-intelligence team in March 2022, after being on the run for over a year. At the time of his arrest, he was wanted in connection with the murder of Vikramjeet alias Vicky Middukhera in August 2021 and the murder of one Simran alias Simmu in May 2021. Since Sunny was a sharpshooter associated with the Bambiha – Lucky Patial – Kaushal Chaudhary alliance, we were apprehensive apprehension that the rival Lawrence Bishnoi – Jaggu Bhagwanpuria – Kala Jathedi alliance may have orchestrated this assault to avenge the killing of Vicky Middukhera,” he said.
Dhaliwal said that after the firing incident, the social media handles used by proxies of rival gangsters started posting various versions of the incident. “The social media handles associated with Bambiha – Lucky Patial – Kaushal Chaudhary alliance claimed that the assault was not to eliminate but to rescue Sunny from police custody. However, since Sunny did not try to escape in the melee and ran inside a courtroom and further into a judicial officer’s chamber after the firing began, this claim appeared highly dubious to us,” he said.
Manish Chandra, the deputy commissioner of police (counter-intelligence), who led this operation, said that amid counter-narratives and implausible theories, the unit started technical surveillance to uncover the truth. “Within three days of the incident, the identities of not just the two motorcycle-borne assailants, who had abandoned their bikes in a nearby jungle while escaping were discovered, but we also identified the other two associates who were present at the spot on another motorcycle. Our scouting for suspects in Delhi, besides Kaithal, Safidon, Jind and Ambala in Haryana and Mohali, Patiala, Moga, Firozepur and Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, resulted in apprehending all the four assailants, along with the master-handler, financier and weapons provider,” he said.
He added that interrogation of the arrested men confirmed that the firing was indeed part of a botched rescue mission, and the reason that Sunny hid instead of escaping was because he was unaware of the rescue attempt.
“It has been established that Lucky Patial was in continuous communication with these men from Europe where he is in hiding. These men were being handled by one Gagandeep Sharma (now arrested), who is an old associate of Dilpreet Dahan – a dreaded gangster-turned-terrorist and an associate of Babbar Khalsa International operational chief Harminder Singh alias Rinda,” he added.