In a major breakthrough amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per the vision of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) of the Punjab Police has averted sensational crimes in the state with the arrest of an operative of Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar gang from Mohali, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Thursday.

The arrested operative has been identified as Vikramjit Singh alias Vicky, a resident of Satiyewala in Ferozepur. The accused has a criminal background and was wanted in at least 20 cases of heinous crimes— including murder, attempt to murder, Arms Act and UAPA— registered in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Police teams have also recovered one Chinese .30 calibre Pistol along with eight live cartridges from his possession and impounded his Toyota Fortuner car.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that acting on the reliable information, teams of AGTF headed by ADGP Promod Ban under the supervision of AIG Gurmeet Singh Chauhan and led by DSP Bikramjit Singh Brar, followed the trail of accused Vicky and arrested him from an apartment located at Sector 91 of Mohali, where he was taking shelter.

He said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused Vicky, backed by Pak agencies, was in touch with Pak-based weapon/drug smugglers through Goldy Brar and Saba (USA) and used to receive consignments of weapons and drugs from across the border. The accused was tasked to eliminate rival gang member of the Davinder Bambiha gang, said the DGP.

Sharing more details, AIG Gurmeet Singh Chauhan said that accused Vicky was one of the shooter/co-accused of deceased gangster Ankit Bhadu in the sensational murder of their rival Jordan, who was shot dead at Gym at Ganganagar, Rajasthan in 2018.

He said that after Ankit Bhadu was neutralised in a police action at Peermuchalla in February 2019, accused Vikramjit Vicky took his place in Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar gang, and got actively involved in criminal activities in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Meanwhile, further investigations are on to dig deeper into his criminal activities to crack down weapon/drug smuggling chain of this gang. A case FIR number 16 dated 27/12/2023 has been registered under section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station State Crime, SAS Nagar.