The Punjab police on Tuesday arrested three men hailing from Jammu and Kashmir who were allegedly involved in a cab driver's murder and also unearthed a terror module linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a senior police officer said.
The accused have been identified as Sahil Bashir (19), a resident of village Handwara Langate in Kupwara, Munish Singh alias Ansh (22), a resident of village Kotli in Doda and Aijaz Ahmed Khan alias Wasim (22), a resident of village Manjpura in Kalamabad, said Director General of Police, Gaurav Yadav.
The police said that following disclosures of the arrested persons, they have retrieved the mortal remains of the victim Anil Kumar. Three bullet shells were also recovered from near the body.
They also recovered the white-coloured Maruti Swift Dzire snatched from the Kumar and the .32 bore country-made pistol used in the crime from the possession of the arrested accused, they said.
Bashir was a wanted criminal under the UAPA and Arms Act cases registered at PS (police station) Qalamabad, Handwara, J-K. His brother Sajad Ahmad Shah had earlier been arrested with a cache of weapons and materials linked to JeM.
Both are identified as Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of JeM, the DGP added, according to a Punjab police statement Tuesday evening.
The officer said that the arrests came while investigating the alleged abduction and murder of Anil Kumar, a resident of Mohali.
A case was registered after his vehicle was snatched by unidentified assailants recently. The driver was last contacted on Friday. Preliminary investigation revealed that three persons from Jammu & Kashmir had hired the cab from Kharar. Soon after, the driver's mobile phones were found switched off, raising immediate suspicion, the officer said.
In her complaint, Anil Kumar's wife Sudha Devi said that her husband drove a taxi vehicle and on Friday morning, like every day, at around 8:30 AM, he left home to after a ride was booked from Kharar to Railway Station, Chandigarh.
Later, she kept on calling her husband continuously, but her husband's two mobile phones were switched off, she said.
The DGP said that investigations revealed that three unidentified persons, who had hired the cab from Kharar, had snatched his vehicle. "Considering the grave and sensitive nature of the matter, multiple police teams were constituted, and acting with speed and precision, all three accused were apprehended," DGP said.
Sharing operation details, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ropar Range, Harcharan Singh Bhullar said that separate teams of Mohali Police were formed and using technical and human resources, the accused were arrested from Bus Stand, Batala and Gurdaspur areas, he said.
The DIG said that during interrogation, the arrested accused persons confessed to having fatally shot the driver after an altercation and later disposed of the body in the Mohali area.
"In a major breakthrough, @Sasnagar (Mohali) police busts a terror module linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and apprehends 3 persons from J&K in abduction & murder of a cab driver and recovers a weapon & vehicle," the DGP posted on X earlier in the day.
Sharing more details, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) SAS Nagar Harmandeep Hans said that the interrogation of the accused revealed that they had booked the cab on the pretext of going from Kharar to Chandigarh railway station.
They had first asked the taxi driver, Anil Kumar, to go to Airport Road via Phase 3B2 Mohali. When Anil Kumar took the accused to village Kandala, they forced the cab driver to come down from the vehicle and shot him dead, before escaping with the car and other belongings, he said.
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