Patiala Police got a major breakthrough in famous Nabha Jail Break case when they along with Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU) of Punjab police claimed to have arrested Gurjit Singh Ladda, one of mastermind and a key accused, after 10 months.
Patiala Senior Superintendent of police (SSP) S Bhupati said Ladda, who was travelling in his luxury Pajero SUV having a fake number plate HR 26AX 2018. He tried to run over the police personnel who were on duty when he signalled to stop at check post. He was arrested during special checking of vehicles near village Mirajpura on Rajpura-Chandigarh road.
“The police somehow managed to intercept his vehicle and recovered .30 bore pistol and 44 live cartridges, fake voter ID, PAN card and passport on the name of Surjit Singh of Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh,” the SSP said.
The police also recovered fake documents including ID cards and passports of Ladda’s wife Ramandeep Kaur and daughter Jaijee Kaur from the vehicle.
SSP said during initial investigations, it came to fore that Ladda with his wife and daughter also travelled to Dubai for 10-day long trip in March.
“Ladda was now planning to run away to USA along with his family on fake passports and other documents,” Bhupti said.
Ladda a native of Tarn Taran District is a history sheeter. He kidnapped Amritsar based businessman and extorted ransom of Rs 50 lakh, involved in day broad light killing of three members of his opponent gang on April 20, the case of murder already registered against him Tibbar police station in Gurdaspur. He and his accomplices snatched at least six vehicles on gun point in Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts in February and March this year.
SSP added that Ladda along with his accomplices including Gopi Ghanshampuria, Gopi Kaura, Prem Singh alias Prema Lahoriya, Palwinder Pinda, masterminded jail break.
On November 27, six dreaded criminals- Gurpreet Singh Sekhon, Harjinder Singh alias Vicky Goundar, Kulpreet Singh Neeta Deol, Amandeep Singh Dhotian, Harminder Singh Mintoo and Kashmira Singh Galwadi—escaped from high security jail on November 27, last year. Both Gounder and Galwadi are yet to be arrested.
The police said Ladda was wanted in several cases of extortion and murders registered in several police stations across the state.
“With Ladda’s arrest, we have managed to solve over dozen cases of murder, loot, extortion, snatching, NDPS act and arms act,” the SSP said.
The police have registered case under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 467(forgery), 468(forgery for purpose of cheating) 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public function) and 473 (possessing counterfeit seal) of IPC act at Rajpura police station.
SSP said so far, with the arrest of Gurjit Ladda, atleast 26 arrests have been made in famous Nabha jail break case and huge amount of ammunition and car used in the crime have been recovered.
