The dispute was regarding the possession and cultivation of land, cops said. (Representational)
Three gangsters were arrested for allegedly killing a member of a rival gang in Haryana's Panipat over a land dispute, police said on Sunday.
The accused have been identified as Arjun Pandit (22), Akshay Sharma (22) and Ravi Shankar Sharma (26), all residents of Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district, they said.
The arrests were made based on a complaint filed on Monday by Ankit, a resident of Panipat, who alleged his uncle Lalit Tyagi was shot at by some assailants, police said.
He said the incident happened when Lalit was taking a bath in the Yamuna River and Bunty (Ankit's cousin) was driving a tractor in a filed nearby.
The assailants came to their field and fired indiscriminately at Lalit and Bunty, they said.
Lalit received bullet injuries on the chest and thighs and died on way to the hospital, police said.
On Saturday, police apprehended the three accused from the Karawal Nagar road here based on a tip-off, Special Commissioner of Police (crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said.
The accused allegedly told the police they belong to the Kaala Pandit gang which is active in the border districts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and used to target people entangled in land disputes.
Their gang member Mohit Pardhan had purchased a plot in Samalkha, Panipat, and had a related dispute with Lalit, who had been recently released on bail after eight years in a jail in the murder case of an ex-sarpanch of his village, police said.
The disputed land was in the Yamuna River Bed. The dispute was regarding the possession and cultivation of this land, police said.
The accused persons have been arrested under relevant sections of law. The Samalkha police station has been informed about the arrest of the accused persons, they said.
Three double-barrel guns, two single-barrel guns, four countrymade pistols, and 23 cartridges have been recovered from their possession, police said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)