On Friday, Punjab’s most wanted gangster Harjinder Singh, along with two other gangsters were gunned down by the police in an encounter. Harjinder Singh also known as Vicky Gounder carried a cash reward of Rs. 10 lakh on his head. At the age of 28, Harjinder Singh aka Vicky Gounder had 15 cases on him including kidnapping and robbery in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Vicky Gounder, a native of Sarawan Bodla village of Muktsar belonged to a gang formed by Jaipal Singh, another history sheeter. Jaipal Singh hails from Ferozepur in Punjab. With Gounder as his front man, Jaipal Singh went into hiding. In January 2015, Gounder and his gang took the life of Sukha Kahlwan. Kahlwan is a rival gangster from Kartarpur in Jalandhar. It is said Gounder filmed and danced around the body of Kahlwan with the policemen at his gunpoint. In December 2015, police finally managed to arrest Gounder in Rupnagar, Punjab.
Gounder was reportedly spotted in Mansa in December 2016 and again in February 2017. In April 2017, he gunned down three members of a rival gang in Gurdaspur. After taking lives of many rivals, Gounder’s activities increased in Punjab’s Majha region.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP,) intelligence, Dinkar Gupta said the police were on Gounder’s trial and got a tip off on Friday that he was hiding along with another gangster, Prema Lahoria near the Punjab and Rajasthan border. Gupta said, “We were on his chase for months. Acting on a tip off, we raided the hideout on Friday. Gounder, Lahoria and the third gangster Sukhpreet Singh started firing at the police team. The cops fired back and the three gangsters were shot. Gounder and Lahoria died on the spot, while Sukhpreet died in Abohar civil hospital.”
It is said Gounder escaped from Nabha Central Jail in November 2016. The Punjab Police’s intelligence report stated Gounder was in touch with the extremist groups in Jammu and Kashmir after the jailbreak. Gounder had various hideouts not only in Jalandhar, Moga, Mansa and Gurdaspur in Punjab but also Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan and Yamunanagar in Haryana.
