Fugitive Pavitar among 17 Sikhs held in US

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, April 19

The Punjab Police have initiated the process of extradition of fugitive gangster Pavitar Singh of Gurdaspur and Husandeep of Batala, who are among 17 Sikhs nabbed by US Police.

All the suspects have been arrested in a multiagency operation in connection with 11 shooting instances, including one at a gurdwara in Sacramento.

Pavitar has been wanted by the Punjab Police in eight criminal cases, including on the charges of murder, attempt to murder and under the Arms Act for smuggling weapons. He was heading the Pavitar-Chaura gang, a rival of the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang.

Out of the eight cases, six were registered in the Amritsar police district and two in Gurdaspur police district. He escaped to foreign shores using a fake passport and identity proofs around four years ago.

Pavitar and his accomplices had shot dead a rival gangster, Sukhwinder Singh Lala of the Lala gang, on Dera Baba Nanak road in Batala on April 2, 2017. Besides Pavitar, the police had booked Saraj Mintu, Golu, Arun, Parry and Mann in the case.

Six months before the incident, members of both gangs had exchanged fire in which Golu Harpuria was injured.

Husandeep is named in three criminal cases on the charges of attempt to murder at Amritsar, Batala and Fatehgarh Churian.

Amritsar (Rural) police SSP Satinder Singh said that the police were looking into their criminal record for their extradition.

He said they were taking up the matter with the higher authorities.