Amritsar encounter: Wanted to catch gangsters alive, gave them chance to surrender, says police

The Punjab Police Thursday said it wanted to catch alive the two gangsters allegedly involved in singer Sidhu Moosewala's murder and had asked them to surrender but they did not stop firing.

Gangsters Jagroop Singh Roopa and Manpreet Singh alias Mannu Kusa were killed in a nearly five-hour-long encounter with the Punjab Police on Wednesday. They hid in a building in Bhakna village near the India-Pakistan border in Amritsar, according to police.

Three policemen and a journalist were also injured.

Amritsar Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) M S Bhullar said police had asked the two gangsters to surrender.

Also read: Two gangsters involved in Moosewala murder killed in encounter

"We wanted to catch them alive. But when they did not stop firing, they were killed in the exchange of fire," he told reporters in Amritsar.

Replying to a question, Bhullar said the gangsters were dropped at the building by a vehicle and efforts are being made to trace it.

"During a search by forensic teams, 31 rounds of AK-47, a 45 bore pistol and two magazines were recovered from the building (where the gangsters were gunned down)," the DCP said.

A broken mobile has also been recovered and the forensic teams will examine it, he said.

On Wednesday, police recovered an AK-47 rifle and a 9 mm pistol from the gangsters.

Asked whether any drugs were recovered from the encounter site, Bhullar said, "We have recovered some tablets and our forensic teams are examining them."

No document has been recovered, he said when asked if any fake passports were found.

The bodies of the two gangsters have been shifted to the Amritsar civil hospital for a post-mortem examination, Bhullar said.

Meanwhile, Roopa's family members reached Amritsar.

They said they had disowned him in 2017-18.

Moosewala was shot dead in Punjab's Mansa district on May 29.