Second Such Encounter In Six Days: Day after arrest, gangster in handcuffs ‘shoots’ at Punjab Police, gunned down

Guru. We took him to the spot to recover the narcotics,” the SSP said.

Amritpal, however, did not disclose that he had also hidden a weapon there, the police officer said.

“While the police were recovering the heroin, Amritpal took out a 9 mm pistol and opened fire, leaving one officer injured. Another officer had a narrow escape as a bullet pierced through his turban. Police personnel fired in self defense, in which Amritpal was killed,” said SSP.

A member of the ‘Happy Jatt’ gang, Amritpal was wanted in four murder and two attempt to murder cases, the police officer added.

Amritpal’s father Manjeet Singh said the family had excommunicated him after he fell in bad company. “He used to work as a daily wage labourer but later fell into bad company, and for the past two and a half years he had not come home. We had excommunicated him and have no information about where he stayed or with whom,” the father said.

This is the second time in less than a week that an accused in handcuffs allegedly opened fire at police party after being taken to a spot for making recovery.

On December 15, Mansa police had claimed that gangster Parmjeet Singh Pamma had fired at the police party while attempting to flee. Pamma, arrested in a case of attempt to murder was on remand with Mansa police. He was taken to Budhlada to recover firearms and explosives. As per the police, Pamma allegedly fired at them from a pistol that he had kept hidden at the location and which the police party was trying to recover. Pamma too was handcuffed. The police had claimed that he was shot in the leg during the return fire.

Meanwhile, human rights activist Sarabjit Singh Verka asked what were the chances that the “police would repeat its mistake” in less than a week. “If the police are to be believed, then they didn’t learn any lesson from the encounter in Mansa. In both cases, the police allowed the handcuffed accused to touch the recovered item. In both cases police claimed that the accused fired from a pistol, which was part of the recovery. This is a very poor script. We have seen Punjab Police giving similar theories in the 80s and 90s. Many such theories fell flat in the courts. There should be judicial intervention in this case too,” said Verka.