3 held for Dy Jailer’s murder

Dehradun, September 19

The Roorkee police, in hot pursuit of the assailants of the slain Deputy Jailer, Roorkee, Narender Singh Thapa, who was shot dead at point-blank range on September 12, have achieved a breakthrough in solving the case with the arrest of three criminals who, it claims, had played a vital role in the murder.
The Gangnahar police, under the charge of inspector Kuldeep Singh Aswal and a special task force headed by Kailash Pawar, has arrested Vipin Jain, Vicky and Mohit Saini from different parts of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
During interrogation, Vipin Jain revealed that gangster Sunil Rathi was the “mastermind” behind conspiracy to murder. Vipin had come in contact with Rathi in 2003 when he was in the Haridwar prison serving a sentence under the NDPS Act. Vipin recently met Rathi at the Tees Hazare Courts in Delhi, where Rathi allegedly contracted him to kill the Roorkee Deputy Jailer. He was told by Rathi that his contacts would meet him in Roorkee with further details.
The motive behind the murder, as revealed by Vipin, is a revenge that Rathi wanted to take on the Jailer of the Roshanabad prison, Mohinder Singh Gawal, who is the brother-in-law of the slain Deputy Jailer. Since Roshanabad is a highly secure jail, Rathi allegedly ordered the killing of Thapa who was closely related to Gawal.
The other accused, Vicky, told the police that there were four persons, Yogesh, Pawan, Satish and Monu, who had stayed with him on the night of September 11. On the day of the incident, September 12, Satish was driving a stolen motorcycle having the registration number of Delhi with Yogesh and Pawan as pillion riders while another motorcycle, UP- 07J-1413, was being driven by Vicky with Monu as a pillion rider. Monu is related to Sunil Rathi.
Vicky and Monu kept surveillance on the movement of Thapa and informed Satish, Yogesh and Pawan about his exact location, who was walking towards his home after seeing off her daughter to school. The assailants arrived on the scene and Yogesh allegedly shot Thapa at point-blank range. They were equipped with five pistols, three of them countrymade.
The third accused, Mohit Saini of Muzaffarnagar, also confessed to the crime and said he used to give information about the victim’s daily routine to one Anubhav. Following this, Anubhav and his partner, Sonu, had allegedly planted a countrymade bomb under the victim’s car on August 31, 2011, in which Thapa escaped unhurt.
Mohit had close links with criminal Anubhav, who had taken money from Sunil Rathi, with whom he was acquainted since 2007, for allegedly planting the bomb under the victim’s car. Mohit used to get information about the victim’s whereabouts from his uncle, Arvind Saini, a constable, lodged at the Roorkee prison. “Since we have identified the criminals involved in Thapa’s murder, we have launched a manhunt to arrest the absconding criminals,” said Roorkee SP Roshan Lal Sharma.
Haridwar: Haridwar SSP Kewal Khurana has said that additional security will be provided to Mohinder Singh Gawal owing to threat to his life as Sunil Rathi has been lodged in the district jail. The SSP further said the Provincial Armed Constabulary had already been deployed on the premises of the prison.