A sharpshooter of a notorious gang who had a bounty of Rs.20,000 on his head has been arrested following a gun-battle with police in Ghaziabad, officials said on Wednesday.
Ranchit Jat, who was a sharpshooter in the Vikky Tyagi gang, was staying in Modi Nagar area in a rented accommodation.
On Monday, a trader filed a police complaint that Ranchit Jat stole his car. Police launched a vehicle check, and the gangster was stopped at a checkpoint on Tuesday night.
On being questioned, Ranchit Jat fired at the police team. Police retaliated and succeeded in nabbing two men, including the gangster's accomplice Ajay Rana.
During interrogation, they told police they were on their way to attend a court hearing of Ajay Rana in Muzaffarnagar on Wednesday.
A pistol with cartridges, a dozen mobile phones, two dozen SIM cards, a laptop and the car were seized from them.
Ranchit Jat has over a dozen criminal cases registered against him in different police stations of Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Chandigarh, where he was involved in a jewellery heist amounting to Rs.20 crore.
He had attacked a police van to release his associates in Muzaffarnagar, and shot a police constable with an AK-47 rifle.
He was on Wednesday presented before a court which sent him to judicial custody, said Deepak Sharma, inspector of Modi Nagar police station.
The inspector general of police Meerut Zone had recently announced a reward of Rs.20,000 to anyone who helped nab Ranchit Jat.
