LUDHIANA: “Most wanted drug smuggler and gangster”, Jaipal Singh Bhullar of Ferozepur and Jaspreet Singh Jassi of Kharar, in SAS Nagar, who had rewards of 10 Lakh and 5 Lakh rupees on their heads have been neutralized by the STF West Bengal Police on Wednesday afternoon, after “they fired” on the STF Police party, when they raided their apartment.
Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Dinkar Gupta, while addressing press conference, said that both the gangsters-turned- drug smugglers were wanted in the killing of two ASIs Bhagwan Singh and Dalwinderjit Singh of Jagraon Police at grain market, Jagraon on May 15, 2021 evening.
Police said that Jaipal had earlier snatched a 9mm Pistol from ASI Sukhdev Singh of Khanna Police on the evening of May 10, 2021, when he was deployed at a naka on GT road near Doraha.
In this connection, Punjab Police had earlier arrested Darshan Singh and Baljinder Singh Babbi from Gwalior on May 28, 2021.
The DGP said that Punjab Police launched a massive operation code named OP-Jack manhunt for nabbing the absconding drug smugglers, Jaipal Bhullar and Jaspreet Singh.
Many police teams were dispatched to various states to nab these gangsters.
He added that the Punjab Police arrested Bharat Kumar of Sahnewal, Ludhiana from near Shambhu Border in Rajpura area on Wednesday and recovered one .30 bore Pistol, along with a Honda Accord vehicle, bearing registration number WB02R4500 by the team.
He added that Bharat, a close accomplice of Jaipal Bhullar, who was providing logistic support to him in Gwalior area of MP after Jaipal and Jassi had fled from Punjab.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said that Bharat revealed that both Jaipal and Jassi were holed up in a rented apartment in Kolkata.
“Punjab Police immediately dispatched a special team for Kolkata by flight.
In the meanwhile, we also coordinated with Kolkata Police to share pinpointed inputs regarding their current hideout for the arrest of these two most wanted drug smugglers,” he said.
The DGP said that a senior police officer from Kolkata police informed later in the afternoon that both the criminals had been killed in retaliatory firing by STF Kolkata in which one of their olice inspectors had also sustained bullet injuries.
“I am grateful to West Bengal Police, especially the ADGP and STF chief of West Bengal, Vineet Goyal, who acted immediately on inputs provided by the Punjab Police and organised a raid at the Kolkata apartment where Jaipal was holed up alongwith his associate, Jassi,” said DGP Dinkar Gupta.
Punjab police said that Jaipal was absconding since 2014 and during all these years, he had committed many heinous crimes and was wanted in more than 25 sensational criminal cases.
It added that he was presently involved in smuggling of drugs from across the border in close collaboration with major drug smugglers based in Pakistan.
Police said that when Shera Khuban was shot dead in a police encounter in 2012, Jaipal suspected that Rocky had leaked information about Shera Khuban to the police.
“Therefore, in 2016, Jaipal murdered Jaswinder Singh Rocky near Solan.
Jaipal took the responsibility of Rocky murder on Facebook and declared it as the revenge of Shera Khuban encounter.
In 2017, Jaipal looted Rs 1.3 cr from a cash van on Chandigarh–Patiala Highway near a private University and Rs 35 lakhs from an ATM loading van in Ropar.
In 2020, Jaipal carried out a dacoity in which he looted about 33 kg gold from Ludhiana.
On 15.05.2021, Jaipal and his associates had shot dead two Punjab Police ASIs in Jagraon”, it added.
Police said that while, Japreet Singh Jassi was involved in atleast four criminal cases, including the killing of two ASIs at Jagraon.
He was a close accomplice of Jaipal, alongwith Darshan Singh and Baljinder Singh Babbi from Gwalior on 28th May, 2021.
Police further said that The neutralization of Jaipal and his close associate in Kolkata on Wednesday, and the arrest of 2 of his associates from Gwalior on May 28, 2021 is a big blow to the heroin drug smuggling network, which is operating from across the border.
DGP said that Wednesday’s operation was the culmination of:Painstaking follow-up work by dedicated team of officers of Internal Security (IS) Wing and OCCU (organised crime control unit) and Close coordination between different police forces and the central agencies
STF Kolkata neutralises two drug smugglers
