In a major crackdown on the nexus between singers, gangsters, and travel agents, the Anti Gangsters Task Force (AGTF) in Punjab has arrested Sharpy Ghuman, the manager of Punjabi singer Karan Aujla, and eight others. The majority of the arrested individuals are travel agents, and they have been apprehended for their alleged involvement in facilitating gangsters to flee the country using fake passports.
The Punjab police had received reliable human inputs about the involvement of an inter-state travel agent in preparing passports using fake particulars, and the AGTF teams, headed by ADGP Promod Ban and assisted by AIG Sandeep Goel, busted this gang with the arrest of its three members. The arrested persons have been identified as Onkar Singh of village Kaki Pind in Jalandhar, Sukhjinder Singh alias Sharpy Ghumman of village Karhali in Patiala, and Prabhjot Singh Baheri in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. The police teams have seized at least nine passports and several photocopies of passports of absconding gangsters, prepared using fake particulars.
The Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab, Gaurav Yadav, has said that acting on reliable human inputs about the involvement of an inter-state travel agent in preparing passports using fake particulars, AGTF teams, headed by ADGP Promod Ban and assisted by AIG Sandeep Goel, in an overnight operation busted this gang with the arrest of its three members. The investigations reveal that this gang had linkages in states including Delhi, UP, Kolkata, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
Karan Aujla's manager Sharpy Ghuman & 8 others arrested in gangster-singer nexus case
The accused persons facilitated several gangsters to flee from the country using fake passports, said ADGP Promod Ban. Onkar Singh, who runs an illegal immigration firm in Jalandhar, was involved in making passports for gangsters using fake particulars and duping innocent people on the pretext of sending them abroad. During questioning, accused Onkar disclosed that he had procured passports on fake particulars for gangsters, including Varinder Pal Singh alias Veena Butter (Bambiha gang), and Jaswinder Singh alias Khattu (Dharminder Gugni gang involved in the target killings in Punjab), to help them flee the country.
During the preliminary interrogation, the accused Prabhjot Singh has revealed that one of his conduits, Charanjit Singh alias Bareilly (who has been arrested by Delhi Police), had made a passport using fake particulars for gangster Deepak Boxer, who was recently deported from Mexico. The third accused, Sukhjinder Singh alias Sharpy Ghumman, has disclosed to have procured a passport on fake particulars for Deepinder Singh alias Deepu of Ajnala, who has a criminal background and is an associate of absconding gangster Harry Chatha.
The Punjab Police is committed to making Punjab a safe and secure state as per the vision of CM Bhagwant Mann. The police teams have rounded up five more persons linked with this gang, and further investigations are on to unearth their entire network. A case FIR no. 2 dated 26-04-2023 has been registered under sections 420, 468, 471, 473, and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), section 25 of the Arms Act, and section 12 of the Passport Act at Police Station State Crime SAS Nagar.