JAIPUR/CHANDIGARH: A suspected shooter involved in the murder of a Dera Sacha Sauda follower was arrested following a brief encounter in a joint operation by Punjab and Rajasthan police in Ramnagaria area of Jaipur, officials said on Sunday.
The main shooter, identified as Ramjan Khan alias Raj Hooda, was injured in his leg in the shoot-out, said Promod Ban, head of the Anti-Gangster Task Force of the Punjab Police.
In Jaipur, Additional DCP (East) Avanish Sharma said that Hooda was hiding in a flat with two others.
'The accused opened fire at police personnel during the raid prompting the police to retaliate. In the exchange of fire, he was injured and has been hospitalised," he said, adding the role of the two other persons, who have been rounded up, is being examined.
Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep Singh, an accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, was shot dead by six assailants in his shop at Kotkapura in Faridkot in Punjab on November 10.
Five shooters have already been arrested in this case.
Three of them including two minors were nabbed by the special cell of the Delhi police while two were arrested by the Punjab police.
Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said the operation was conducted in coordination with central agencies and Rajasthan Police.
"In a major breakthrough AGTF arrested Ramjan Khan @ Raj Hooda, involved in murder of Pardeep at Kotkapura, Faridkot has been apprehended after a brief encounter with AGTF at Jaipur, Rajasthan," said Yadav in a tweet.
Hooda was the main shooter involved in the murder of the Dera Sacha Sauda follower, Pramod Ban told PTI.
The encounter took place in the Jagatpura area in Jaipur.
"We will question him in detail once we bring him here," said Pramod Ban.
Hooda received a bullet injury in his leg, said police.
Police said it had been on his trail for the past many days.
The alleged shooter kept changing his hideouts, said Ban.
Hooda moved from Chandigarh to Hisar and then came back to Chandigarh, and on Saturday, he reached Jaipur, said Ban.
Despite having Punjab Police protection, Pardeep was killed by six assailants in his dairy shop in Kotkapura in Faridkot.
His security man and another person had sustained bullet injuries in the incident.
Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar had claimed responsibility for the killing in a purported social media post.
Brar is also the main accused in the murder case of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was shot dead in May.
Police on Saturday had said that from the interrogation and evidence collected so far, involvement of Brar has been established beyond doubt in the murder case.
He was the key conspirator in this case, police had said.