Dreaded gangster Jaipal Bhullar, aide Jaspreet killed in Kolkata encounter

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 9

Punjab’s most-wanted drug smuggler and A-category gangster Jaipal Singh Bhullar, along with Jaspreet Singh (alias Jassi), who had rewards of Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, respectively, on their heads, were killed in an encounter with the STF of the West Bengal Police in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Jaipal was wanted in 40 cases, carried Rs 10L reward

The raid at their hideout was conducted on a tip-off by the Punjab Police and coordination with central security agencies. Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Dinkar Gupta, while addressing a press conference here today, said both gangster-turned-drug smugglers were wanted in the killing of ASIs Bhagwan Singh and Dalwinderjit Singh at the grain market, Jagraon, on May 15. Jaipal was the most notorious as he had links with anti-India agencies in Pakistan.

He had snatched a 9-mm pistol from ASI Sukhdev Singh of the Khanna police on the evening of May 10, when he was deployed at a naka on the GT road near Doraha. The DGP said the Punjab Police launched a massive operation, codenamed ‘Operation Jack Manhunt’, to nab Jaipal Bhullar and Jaspreet Singh. Many police teams were dispatched to various states to nab these gangsters with the help of other police forces.

He said the Punjab Police had arrested Bharat Kumar of Sahnewal, Ludhiana, near the Shambhu border in the Rajpura area and recovered a.30 bore pistol along with a Honda Accord car. Bharat was providing logistic support to Jaipal in Gwalior after he and Jassi fled from Punjab.

The DGP said Bharat revealed that Jaipal and Jassi were holed up in a rented apartment in Kolkata. “The Punjab Police immediately dispatched a special team for Kolkata by flight. In the meanwhile, we also coordinated with the Kolkata police to share pinpointed inputs regarding their current hideout for the arrest of the drug smugglers,” he said.

The DGP said a senior police officer from the Kolkata police informed them in the afternoon that both criminals had been killed in retaliatory firing by the STF in which one of their police inspectors had sustained bullet injuries.

“I am grateful to the West Bengal Police which acted on inputs provided by the Punjab Police and conducted a raid at the Kolkata apartment where Jaipal was holed up along with Jassi,” the DGP said.