Punjab: 4 including gangster booked for murder of two ASIs

The police have identified four people, including a notorious gangster, who were allegedly involved in killing two policemen and efforts are on to nab them, the police said on Sunday. Two Assistant Sub Inspectors -- Bhagwan Singh and Dalwinder Singh -- were shot dead at the new grain market at Jagraon here on Saturday evening.

Acting on a tip off, the two policemen had gone to the grain market where they noticed four people shifting drugs from a truck to their car. When the policemen asked them to surrender, the accused opened fire, resulting into the death of the two ASIs, police said.

The police have registered a case under various sections, including 302, 307 of the IPC, and relevant sections of the Arms Act against Jaipal Singh Bhullar of Ferozepur, Balwinder Singh alias Babbu of Moga, Jaspreet Singh of Kharar and Darshan Singh of Ludhiana district, officials said.

Inspector General of Police, Naunihal Singh, said various police teams conducted raids at their possible hideouts but they have not been successful so far.

He said, ''intensive manhunt is on and the killers will be nabbed soon''.

Both the ASIs were posted in the state's crime investigation agency (CIA) in Jagraon.

All those involved are members of a drug racket, with Bhullar being the leader of this gang, police said.

The police also released the photos of all the four suspects while the truck has also been recovered on Saturday evening. The police handed over the bodies of the deceased to the members of their families after their post-mortem was performed at Jagraon hospital.

They took the bodies to their respective villages under police cover for cremation.

Meanwhile, the mortal remains of the two ASIs were consigned to flames with full state honours at their native villages on Sunday.

ASI Bhagwan Singh, 50, was cremated at his native village Kothe Ath Chak in Jagraon. Bhagwan is survived by his wife and 15-year-old son. ASI Dalwinder Singh, 48, was cremated in his native village Sangwan, Patti in Tarn Taran district. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta, termed it as a tragic incident, and said the Punjab Police had lost two brave officers.

He said the Punjab Police would always stand solidly with their martyr families. Gupta, in a statement here, assured that the families of both officers would be paid a sum of Rs one crore each, besides other benefits like jobs etc. for the wards of slain police personnel.

The DGP led senior police officials in observing a two-minute silence in memory of both the slain officers to pay homage during a meeting of all senior police officers.

The DGP assured that the sacrifice of both the officers will not go in vain and he directed all the police chiefs to intensify the manhunt in their concerned districts and nab the accused at the earliest. PTI COR CHS VSD TDS TDS

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)