Amritsar police kill gangster in an encounter 24 hours after his arrest
Amritsar: The Amritsar police shot dead an alleged gangster, Amritpal Singh, also known as Amari and Lembhar, in an encounter in a village in the Amritsar Rural police district on Wednesday morning.
According to the police, a policeman was also injured in the alleged encounter involving Amritpal Singh, who was arrested on Tuesday. Singh was wanted in four murder cases, they said.
Police officers said the gangster was brought to the spot on the bank of a canal in Dhar village to recover drugs. Singh allegedly fired a shot from the pistol that he had kept along with the heroin, which the police wanted to seize. He was handcuffed when he allegedly opened fire at police.
“The gangster was arrested on Tuesday in a murder case. During the investigation, he informed the police about the heroin that he was hiding near Dhar village. Along with the heroin, he had also kept a weapon. He had not told the police about it,” said Satinder Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Amritsar Rural.
“While recovering the heroin from the spot, he took out the weapon and fired at our policemen with the pistol. One official has been seriously injured. One bullet grazed the turban of another police official who narrowly escaped,” said Satinder Singh.
“The police officers acted in self-defence after Amritpal fired and he was killed. He belonged to the Happy Jatt gang,” said SSP.
Amritpal’s father Manjeet Singh said his son used to work as a laborer earlier. “Due to unfortunate circumstances, he fell into bad company, and for the past two and a half years, he has not come home. The family had no information about where he stayed during this time and with whom. The family had already excommunicated him. We don’t know how he died.”
Human rights activist Sarabjit Singh Verka said, “What are the chances that the police would repeat its mistake within five days? If the police are to be believed, then the force didn’t learn any lesson from the encounter in Mansa. In both cases, the police allowed the handcuffed accused to touch the recoveries, and then the police claimed that the accused fired from pistols which were part of the recovery. This is a very poor script. We have seen Punjab Police giving similar theories in the 80s and 90s. Many such theories fell flat in CBI courts. There should be judicial intervention in this case too.”
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