Delhi cops nab 3 for Youth Akali Dal leader Middukhera murder
Mohali, March 29
The Delhi Police stole a march over their counterparts in Mohali when they nabbed three suspects for the murder of YAD leader Vicky Middukhera that had taken place in Sector 71 here on August 7.
The suspects have been identified as Jhajjar resident Sajjan, alias Bholu (37), Delhi resident Anil Kumar Latth (32), and Kurukshetra resident Sunny (20), all active members of the Bambiha group. Fearing that the arrested members could be killed in a fake encounter, the group posted on a social networking site that their operatives had been arrested by the Delhi Police.
The arrests were part of an operation by the special cell of the Delhi Police in which it claimed to have arrested 12 hardcore criminals in a single day, wanted in several cases, with rewards ranging from Rs1 lakh to Rs50,000 on their head.
Sources said some of the arrests were made in Maharashtra. The trio are stated to be directly involved in the daylight shooting in which nine bullets were pumped into Middukhera near a property dealer’s shop. The police here said the trio would be brought to Mohali on a production warrant soon.
Mohali SSP Harjeet Singh said, “We are sending an official tomorrow to get details of the suspects. Their role in the murder, who all are involved and the motive would be probed.”
The police said the arrests were made after a major operation across seven states of the country over a month by the counter-intelligence unit of the special cell of the Delhi Police. The 12 suspects are aides/sharp shooters of gangsters Kaushal Chaudhary, Davinder Bambhia and Lucky Patial.
The police also confirmed the involvement of the trio’s gang in the recent murder of kabaddi player Sandeep Nangal Ambia, who was shot dead by five unidentified assailants during a match at Mallian village in Jalandhar on March 14. The trio were active primarily in Haryana but their involvement in crime incidents in Punjab needs to be probed in detail. Officials said multiple probes by the police of three states confirmed that Middukhera’s killing was a fallout of a gang war rather than an act of contract killing.
Ajay Pal Middukhera, elder brother of the deceased, however, ruled out his brother’s enmity with the Bambiha group.
Ever since Middukhera’s murder around eight months ago, the Mohali police have questioned at least 58 gangsters and criminals, including Kaushal Chaudhary, Bhupi Rana and Amit Dagar, lodged in various jails, but have failed to nab the suspects.
All active members of Bambiha group
The suspects have been identified as Jhajjar resident Sajjan, alias Bholu (37), Delhi resident Anil Kumar Latth (32), and Kurukshetra resident Sunny (20), all active members of the Bambiha group.
Daylight shooting
On August 7, 2021, four assailants came in a white car bearing a Mohali registration number in the parking lot of the Sector 71 market where Vicky Middukhera had come to meet his friend, a property dealer. Two of the four masked men chased him and fired at him around 20 rounds as he was about to sit in his SUV. Nine bullets hit the victim as he ran for cover, scaling the wall of the community centre nearby. The assailants fled the spot, but the sensational killing was caught on CCTV camera.
