Chandigarh, Jan 7 (IANS): Two associates of foreign-based gangster Prabhdeep Singh, alias Prabh Dasuwal, were arrested after a brief encounter in Punjab, police said on Tuesday.

With the arrest, the Punjab Police claimed to have solved at least two firing incidents in Tarn Taran district.

Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said those arrested have been identified as Karanpreet Singh and Gurlaljit Singh.

Police teams have also recovered one .32 bore pistol along with cartridges and empty bullet shells from their possession, besides impounding their scooter, which they were riding.

As per the information, both the accused were running an extortion racket on the directions of their handler Dasuwal, who is associated with the Ghanshyampuria gang.

The recent firing incident took place at a medical store in Gharyala village on January 1 and another firing incident took place at Valtoha wherein they targeted an 'arhtiya' to demand extortion of Rs 20 lakh on December 2, 2024.

DGP Yadav said following the incident, Tarn Taran Police launched a special operation and acting on technical aspects and intelligence, identified the accused involved in both cases.

Acting on the tip-off about the accused who were roaming in Valtoha, a police team followed the trail and managed to locate them at a checkpoint in Valtoha, where both the accused started firing at the police party, he said, adding the police fired back in self-defence.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Tarn) Taran Abhimanyu Rana said accused Karanpreet and Gurlaljit sustained bullet injuries in retaliatory fire. Later, both were admitted to the hospital.

He said Karanpreet has a criminal history and was wanted by the police in criminal cases. He said further investigations and raids were on to nab absconding accused persons in both cases.