Two days after the Punjab Police cracked the triple murder case in Ferozepur with the arrest of six shooters from Maharashtra, investigation into the case on Monday revealed that the assailants’ primary target was deceased Dildeep, while the two other victims lost their lives inadvertently after getting caught in the crossfire.

Those arrested have been identified as Gurpreet Singh, Prince, Ravinder Singh, Sukhchain Singh, Akshay, and Rajbeer Singh, all residents of Ferozepur.

The arrests were made jointly by Punjab’s Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF), Ferozepur, central agencies, and Maharashtra Police from Aurangabad.

On September 3, Dildeep Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Jaspreet Kaur, Akashdeep and Harpreet were travelling in a car in Ferozepur, when six assailants opened fire on them.

In the firing, Dildeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh and their sister Jaspreet Kaur were killed, while two others, Anmolpreet Singh and Harpreet Singh, were injured. They are undergoing treatment at a hospital.

Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Gurmeet Chauhan, AIG Sandeep Goel and Senior Superintendent of Police Saumya Mishra, who addressed a joint press briefing here, said all the six arrested accused will be produced before a court to procure police remand for further questioning.

The preliminary investigation has revealed that the murders were carried out due to a personal enmity between Dildeep Singh and Buvnesh Chopra and Harpreet Singh. Dildeep Singh also had a previous criminal background, they said, adding that efforts are being made to get the deportation of the main accused Chopra.

Sharing details, AIG Gurmeet Chauhan said operation ‘Desert’ to gather leads from the scene of crime and background of the deceased was launched after gathering human-intelligence and technical inputs.

Counter intelligence personnel and the Ferozepur Police first arrested accused Daljit Singh. During interrogation, the accused revealed that he was given the task of carrying out recce of the victims and keep a watch on their movements.

He said the AGTF tracked the movement of the suspects in Nanded, Maharashtra, and shared the inputs with the central agencies and the Maharashtra Police on September 6.

Following the inputs, the Police Commissioner of Aurangabad alerted and activated his teams, leading to the arrests.