M A I N   N E W S

Shoes nail Vikramjit’s killer
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 22
Jagminder Singh, alias Aman Verma, had no clue that his shoes would bare his criminal activities.

The Rs 9,000-Reeboks had been purchased by him using the credit card of Vikramjit Singh whom his gang had kidnapped and done to death in June this year.

The police said, with Aman’s arrest, it had busted an international gang of criminals led by this man of many identities.

The gang’s plan was to get a ransom of Rs 4 crore. However, the criminals made just Rs 28,000 and killed Vikramjit in their haste to get rid of him as early as possible.

What was more shocking was the revelation made by the accused that they had not specifically targeted Vikram, son of the owner of Frontier Cycle Manufacturers, on June 26. They did not even know who he was till they kidnapped him.

Vikramjit happened to be an unfortunate victim, chosen randomly from among several youths from the Sarabha Nagar market, who seemed to be from rich families and usually roamed around in swanky cars carrying costly mobile sets.

Briefing mediapersons here today, IG Hardeep Dhillon said two key members of the gang, the kingpin, Jagminder Singh, alias Aman Verma, and Rajinder Singh, belonged to the city.

The criminals had been in and out of the jail several times earlier in connection with kidnappings and cases of vehicle thefts. They were in need of some money urgently, which forced them to kidnap Vikramjit. They stopped his vehicle addressing him as Deepak and accusing him of eve-teasing. They entered the car as the doors were not locked.

They took the victim to Almagir where they dumped his car and fled in an Indigo car. Vikramjit tried to run away by opening the door of the car near Doraha taking advantage of a traffic jam. However, he was overpowered and forcibly made to swallow sleeping pills.

They shot him in the head twice near Barog while on way to Solan, where they dumped his body. They were apprehensive that he could identify them if released.

Jagminder left for Delhi on the same day. Next day, he made some purchases at Gurgaon malls using Vikramjit’s credit card. He was accompanied by a Delhi-based friend. He left for Jaipur on June 27 and went to Nepal the next day. The intention was to ask his contacts to make ransom calls from Dubai.

On July 5, he came to know that the body of Vikramjit had been identified. It was only then that he gave up the hope of getting ransom. He came to India after some time and again indulged in theft of cars. He stole two cars and sold these off in Nepal.

The dumping of the body at Solan and calls from Dubai, besides abandoning the car at Almigri village, were planned to hoodwink the police.

The only mistake the accused made was to use the credit card of the victim for making purchases at a mall in Gurgaon that provided a clue to the police.

The IG said Jagminder Singh and Rajinder Singh were nabbed yesterday for being members of a car lifters’ gang. However, policemen noticed a pair of red shoes worn by Jagminder, which were similar to the one purchased from Gurgaon.

A photograph of the accused captured in the video cameras installed at the mall and a sketch made by a local artist matched his description, forcing him to confess his crime.

In a news report from Chandigarh, The Tribune had underlined the significance of the clue as to the use of the credit card and the pictures captured in a camera.

Jagminder Singh is the son of a retired XEN, Ranjit Singh Saggu, a resident of Canadian Enclave, Ludhiana. He operated under various names like Rajvir Singh, Aman Verma, Abhishek Vidiarthi, Sumit Sharma, Saggu, Happy and Honey.

He said he was also the kingpin in the kidnapping case of Nipun Joshi, son of the owner of Joshi Auto Zone, Chandigarh. The police was successful in arresting his gang members in connection with that case, but he had managed to flee to Singapore at that time.

Meanwhile, the police was able to arrest another accused in the case, Ranjit of Raikot, from Ludhiana late this evening.

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