Input on Gounder sends Gurdaspur cops into tizzy

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, November 23

Three hundred policemen and commandos surrounded two Gurdaspur villages after the police received reports that Nabha jail escapee Vicky Gounder and the gangster’s accomplices were hiding there.

The policemen laid siege to the twin villages of Talibpur and Mahanta Di Pandori village, 7 km from here, around 4 pm after the intelligence wing traced the mobile location of one of Gounder’s accomplices.

Senior police officers who reached the spot refused to confirm Gounder’s presence. “This is a secret operation and it is too early to confirm if Gounder is present or not. All that we can confirm at this stage is that the mobile phone location of Gounder’s aides has been traced to the twin villages,” said an officer.

DSP (Detective) Ajay Raj Singh and DSP (Special Branch) Gurbans Singh Bains were supervising the search operations. One team led by Ajay Raj Singh was searching Talibur village while GS Bains was heading the operation at Mahata Di Pandori village.

More reinforcements were on the way to the villages from the Gurdaspur Police Lines.

On April 20, Gounder and his accomplices Gian Kharal and Sukh Bhikhariwal had shot dead three members of a rival gang at Kahnuwan chowk in Gurdaspur.

While Kharal had been arrested and is serving time in the Gurdaspur Central Jail, Gounder and Bhikhariwal are at large.

On numerous occasions earlier, the mobile locations of Gounder and his aides have been traced to places in Gurdaspur, but the gangster remains elusive. From time to time, reports have also surfaced that he had shifted base to either Uttar Pradesh or Rajasthan, but there has been no official confirmation of it.