BBN belt in Himachal vulnerable to nefarious designs of gangsters in Punjab

Ambika Sharma

Solan, June 1

The bordering industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) is highly vulnerable to nefarious activities of gangsters active in Punjab, where apart from shoot-outs, their involvement in criminal activities like extortion has been coming to fore every now and then.

An accused, Ajay, alias Sunny (20), a resident of Umri village in Kurukshetra, Haryana, was arrested by the Nalagarh police on May 27 for a shootout case which had taken place on the Baddi-Nalagarh highway at Khera village on May 24,2021 to control nefarious drug trade. One person had died while three others had been injured in this incident.

Ransom calls received

Reports of ransom calls are being received in the BBN belt… The demand to create a post of DSP, Detective, has been forwarded to the state government. —Mohit Chawla, Baddi SP

What has created a scare in the area is the fact that Ajay was among two other gangsters arrested by the Mohali police for the murder of Youth Akali Dal leader Vikramjeet Middukhera which had taken place at Mohali in August 2021. Not only this, a Baddi trader had recently received a ransom call from a Punjab gangster whose name cropped up in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case.

Baddi SP Mohit Chawla while, confirming the arrest of Ajay, said he was arrested in a 2021 case of highway shootout. He admitted that reports of ransom calls were being received in this belt and due coordination with the neighbouring police of Punjab and Haryana was being maintained by the detective cell looking into organised crimes. He added that the demand to create a post of DSP, Detective, had also been forwarded to the state government in view of the increasing number of such crimes.

In April 2018, the Mohali police had arrested a youth from Gullerwala village in Baddi for his alleged involvement in shooting at Punjabi singer Parmish Verma. Gangster Dilpreet Singh had claimed responsibility for the attack in a Facebook post.

The Baddi police had also arrested another Punjab gangster, Gagandeep Lahoria, alias Gaggi, for a firing case in September 2020. He was brought here from Sangrur jail in October 2020.

Not only this, armed assailants had fired at a scrap dealer in Nalagarh in a bid to secure ransom. The conspiracy had been hatched by gangster Dilpreet Baba, languishing in a Punjab jail.

The spillover of the gang culture in Punjab is often visible in the Nalagarh area where places like Jogo, Bagheri and Dheerowal, which shared border with Ropar in Punjab, are often found to be used as hideouts by gangsters. These facts came to light while mapping areas vulnerable to gangster activities. A senior police official said cases of gangsters staying here, considering these as safe havens after committing crimes in Punjab, had been coming to fore.

Security concerns of the area have once again arisen with the killing of Sidhu Moosewala in Punjab.