3 carjackers arrested after exchange of fire

Three carjackers, who had snatched a car in Ludhina, were arrested today after a brief chase and exchange of fire, police said.
IG (Jalandhar Zone) Arpit Shukla, DIG (Ludhiana Range) Urendra Singh, SSP Khanna Navjot Singh Mahal and SSP Nawanshahr Satinder Singh, in a press conference here, said that an alert was issued in the state following the snatching of a car in Ludhina at around 1.30 pm.
Following which, check posts were set up and a drive was launched by SHO Rahon at Kannon complex on Sutlej river falling in Nawanshahr district.
At around 3 pm, the accused in the car, which they had looted, came from Machhiwada side was seen speeding towards the check post at Kannon, when they were signalled to stop.

Instead of stopping the car, they tried to sped away and when a police constable tried to stop the vehicle by taking hold of an occupant from the window, his AK-47 rifle was snatched by the occupants of the car, who later sped towards the Rahon side.
Following this, police force including that of adjoining districts were alerted.

IG said, he himself, DIG Ludhiana Yurendra Singh and SSP Khanna Navjot Mahal and SSP Nawanshahr Satinder Singh reached Rahon.
In the meantime, the three car occupants abandoned their car near Bharta Kalan and snatched a motorcycle from its rider at gun point.

The looters were later spotted by a team led by DSP Nawanshahr at a naka near Urapur. The team led by the DSP when started chasing the looters, they opened fire.
"The police also returned fire, and the accused were blocked from all sides by the police teams, the IG said, adding that ultimately the accused nabbed along with their weapons which included two country-made .315 bore pistols along with four live cartridges and an AK-47 rifle snatched from the police constable and the snatched motorcycle.
The accusedwere identified as Harjit Singh, Baljit Singh alias Bob and Vishal Kumar alias Sonu, all residents of Tajpur Road in Ludhiana.

Preliminary investigations revealed that all of them had a criminal background and a number of cases including under the NDPS Act had been registered against them in various police stations.
A civilian Sohan Lal of Burj Tehaldass who was coming from Urapur was also injured during the cross firing. He was immediately shifted to Nawanshahr civil hospital from where he has been referred to PGI in Chandigarh.