Bathinda encounter: No effort made for their surrender, say kin of two shot dead by cops

The police encounter on Friday took place after car of one Nishan Singh, a resident of Sunam, was snatched at gun point. He is stated to be a relative of SP (Vigilance) Bhupinder Singh, who is posted at Bathinda

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Mother of Manpreet Manna, who died in the encounter in Bathinda Friday. Gurmeet Singh

A day after Bathinda police’s encounter with five alleged gangsters, family members of Manpreet Manna and Prabhdeep Singh Deepa, who were killed in the shootout, said Saturday that the police should have forced them to surrender rather than killing them. Meanwhile, Harvinder Singh and Gurvinder Singh, who were arrested after the encounter, were on Saturday produced in court, which sent them to five days of police remand. The fifth, Amritpal Singh, is under treatment at Faridkot Medical College.

Jaswinder Kaur, mother of Manpreet Manna who had come to the civil hospital at Bathinda to collect his body, said, “He was into petty theft years back. There were two FIRs against him lodged in Abohar, in 2012 and another in 2014. But he was not a gangster If he had done some crime, police should have got him to surrender rather than shooting him at once. Jaswinder had come from Azamgarh village of Abohar.

There was high drama at the Bathinda civil hospital when Avreen Kaur, wife of Prabhdeep Singh Deepa, came to claim his body. She claimed they were living together in Chandigarh where there was one FIR against Deepa at Khrar police station.

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However, Deepa’s uncle Kultaj Singh, who had also come to claim the body, said Deepa and his wife were not living together. Kultaj Singh took Deepa’s body at his native village Mammu Khera in Arniwala tehsil of Fazilka district. 0According to police, Avreen Kaur was once selected for recruitment in the Punjab police, but she left during the training process.

Police claimed Manna and Deepa had helped gangster Amritpal run away from Abohar court complex on September 27 this year. Amritpal, who is currently under treatment due to bullet injury on his arm, is stated to be the mastermind. He was lodged in Ferozepur central jail and was under trial in a murder case.

Mukwinder Singh Chhina, IG (Bathinda range), said, “The gang specialized in stealing SUVs and later running them on roads with fake numbers. Their area of operation was Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.” According to police, all five “gangsters” faced cases for various crimes in Punjab and Rajasthan.

The police encounter on Friday took place after car of one Nishan Singh, a resident of Sunam, was snatched at gun point. He is stated to be a relative of SP (Vigilance) Bhupinder Singh, who is posted at Bathinda.

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