– illegal arms & ammunition, heroin along with drug money recovered
– ARRESTED ACCUSED IS A KEY OPERATIVES OF CANADA BASED LAKHBIR SINGH @LANDA HARIKE
Punjab Police’s State Special Operation Cell, SAS Nagar on 08, February, 2024 arrested wanted gangster Rajan Bhatti (a close associate of fugitive Lakhbir Singh @Landa) in a daring raid conducted by SSOC teams in Sector 70, SAS Nagar. DIG J. Elanchezhian, IPS, State Special Operating cell, SAS Nagar has informed that that on receiving a tip off about Rajan Bhatti, SSOC teams acting swiftly raided and arrested the accused and recovered one .32 bore Pistol along with 04 lives rounds at the time of arrest. During further investigation one .45 Bore Pistol along with 05 live rounds, 270gm Heroine and Rs 7,97,000/- drug money has been recovered from his flat in sector 70, SAS Nagar in which the accused was residing at present.
Rajan Bhatti was already wanted in 02 cases registered against him under sections of NDPS Act and Arms act at PS State Special Operation Cell, SAS Nagar in which his associates Pardeep Singh resident of Moga and Krishan Singh resident of Ferozpur were arrested with recovery of heroin and in another case Bhatti’s associates Harjasneet and Kamaljeet Singh @ Prince both residents of Bathinda were arrested with illegal arms and ammunition recovered that belonged to Bhatti.
Arrested accused Rajan Bhatti S/o Alia Masih R/o Village Mustafabad Jattan, PS Tibbar, Gurdaspur is a key operative of Canada based terrorist Lakhbir Singh @ Landa Harike and was working on his direction. Lakhbir @ Landa Harike in past has operated various target killing and extortion modules in Punjab. Bhatti’s criminal enterprise primarily revolved around the illegal smuggling of heroin and illegal Arms and ammunition. There are more than 20 cases of NDPS, Arms act, Extortion and attempt to murder cases registered against Rajan Bhatti in Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi and he is declared Proclaimed offender in more than 05 cases in Punjab and Chandigarh.
Apart from this he has many cases of NDPS Act, Arms act, Extortion and 307 IPC registered against him in Chandigarh out of which in one case he was involved in firing incident on DSP Jagbir Singh of Chandigarh Police. Last time Rajan Bhatti was arrested by Delhi’s Special Cell and after getting out of Tihar Jail he went underground.
From preliminary questioning of the accused it has been learnt that Rajan Bhatti was in regular contact with Punjab based heroin smugglers residing in Uganda (Africa) who provided him with heavy heroin and illegal arms ammunition consignments with in areas of Punjab and Delhi which he further smuggled to his associates in various regions of Punjab. Bhatti was now residing in Mohali by changing his identity at different hideouts in the area.
Teams of SSOC, SAS Nagar are questioning Bhatti to glean vital intelligence on his criminal network and associates. The investigation is ongoing, with authorities confident of further breakthroughs in the near future.