NEW DELHI: Delhi Police's Special Cell has arrested two alleged shooters who had come to the city for a hitjob at orders of Arshdeep Dalla, a Canada-based ganglord, a senior officer said on Thursday.
Ravinder Singh, 21, and Navdeep Singh, 26, both residents of Gurdaspur in Punjab, were wanted in a recent of firing outside the house of one Ankit Goel, a Bhatinda-based businessman.
They had fired at Goel's house after making a demand for Rs 1 crore.
Ravinder and Navdeep had been sent to Delhi by Taranjot Singh - currently lodged in Firozpur Jail in Punjab - to kill a man who had filed a police complaint after he had been threatened to give Rs 5 crore to the gang.
The extortion bid was made at the behest of Arshdeep Dalla, police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Rajiv Rajan Singh said that both shooters were arrested from near Mukarba Chowk Flyover in Delhi's Jahangirpuri on September 22, when they came to meet a Delhi-based contact to execute their contract.
"The two have been working under the direction of Punjab-based Taranjot Singh, who is further working under the direction of Canada-based terror gang operator Arshdeep Dalla. Taranjot also has close links with Hardeep Nijjar of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF). Two semi-automatic pistols and nine live cartridges were recovered from their possession," he said.
During interrogation, Navdeep told police that he was fascinated with the high-profile Taranjot and also wanted to earn a huge amount of money in a short time, so he started following his orders, and came in contact with Ravinder.
At Taranjot's direction, he had collected a bag containing two semi-automatic weapons, kept by his contacts, from near a bus stand in Sonepat in Haryana.
The guns were used on the targets assigned by Taranjot, the officer said.
In mid-September, Taranjot had ordered Ravinder and Navdeep to go to Bhatinda and meet Jasvinder Singh and fire at Ankit Goel's house, the officer said.
"They both reached Bhatinda and met Jasvinder. All three communicated with Taranjot. Thereafter, they carried out firing at the residence of Ankit Goel in the area of Raman Mandi, Bhatinda," the DCP said. Both were promised Rs 2.5 lakh for the assignment," police said.
During interrogation, both confessed that they were working on a fundraising module for their gang and on the direction of Arshdeep Dalla, who is a close associate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the officer said.
"But the businessman refused to pay the money and filed a police case. To give a message across and terrorise public, they were directed to kill the complainant. The extorted money was supposed to be used for strengthening the terrorist gangs," he added.