Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh today rejected allegations of a fake encounter against most wanted gangster Vicky Gounder and his associates, saying the families of the deceased gangsters were obviously reacting from a sense of grief.
The chief minister also said that there would be an expansion of the state Cabinet after municipal elections are held in Ludhiana.
"While the death of gangsters is not a cause for celebration, such criminals should realise that nobody was above the law, nor could they escape the law for long," said the chief minister in response to media queries at an event organised by Chandigarh Press Club here.
He also appealed to gangsters still active in the state to shun the path of violence.
Punjab Police had on January 26 eliminated -the most wanted Vicky Gounder, his associate Prema Lahoria, and Sawinder Singh, who succumbed to bullet injuries later in an encounter at village Pakki under Hindu Malkot police station in Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan.
Yesterday, family members of Gounder had alleged that Gounder and Lahoria were killed in a fake encounter.
Chief Minister Singh said that since the Congress government took over, 47 per cent of A category gangsters and 42 per cent B category ones had either surrendered or were arrested, as a result of a concerted police crackdown.
Asserting that the police would continue to pursue criminals still at large, the chief minister said they should realise that hey could not evade the law any longer.
He made it clear that though the gangsters would have to meet their fate under the law, the government would, at the same time, make all efforts for their eventual rehabilitation.
To a question on allegations of a fake encounter by the families of Gounder and his aides, Amarinder Singh dismissed the charges as false.
To another question, he said that the cabinet expansion would be undertaken after the Ludhiana municipal elections. The selection would once again be based on merit, he added.
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