Bushy brows, lion tattoo on chest did Shera in

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 12

Hardeep Singh alias Shera (20), the alleged assassin of six religio-political leaders in Punjab, managed to evade arrest for more than 21 months, but was finally done in by his bushy eyebrows and the large tattoo of a lion on the left side of his chest.

Police officials involved in the investigation said tracking him down was the biggest challenge after they learnt that none of the five accused arrested last week was the shooter they were looking for.

The alleged assassin who practiced his sharp-shooting skills using a Swiss air pistol was only known by his alias Harman. He had no social media account and is suspected to have gone abroad after executing some of the killings.

Even though Ramandeep and three others, including Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo, were arrested, it took the police two more days to track him down through a massive manhunt by 150 teams comprising over 300 cops.

Police sources said those arrested revealed Shera’s code name and his identification details, mainly his bushy eyebrows and the tattoo.

“In this age of tracking down criminals via phones or social media, this was the biggest manhunt launched on the ground through human resources and intelligence. Literally every gym in Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Jalandhar, Khanna, Ropar and Mohali was scanned thoroughly. Finally, his unique identity particulars — bushy eyebrows that met in the middle of his forehead and the chest tattoo — led the cops to him,” revealed a police official.

He said Shera’s well-built physique helped a little as it was most visible in his CCTV grabs near the crime spots. “It is but common to see Punjabi youths with such physique,” said a senior official.

From hundreds of gyms, the police found him at Bajwa Gym in Fatehgarh Sahib on Saturday morning. He is a resident of Majri, near Amloh town in Fatehgarh Sahib.

It is learnt that Mintoo had allegedly roped in Shera whom he met in Italy a few years ago and convinced him to avenge the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and other alleged atrocities on Sikhs. Shera’s paternal uncle had adopted him when he was six. He was brought up in Italy and speaks Italian well.