Chandigarh: After gunning down most-wanted gangster Vicky Gounder, Punjab police will now focus on other dreaded criminals and gangsters, including Harry Chattha, Gopi Ghanshyampuria, and Jaipal, who is accused in several cases of murder and extortion. 

As many as 17 A-category (dreaded criminals) and 21 B- category gangsters were believed to be active in Punjab as of January 2017, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora said here today. "Nine gangsters have either been arrested or are dead and there are now eight A-category and nine B-category gangsters remaining and the police are concentrating on them," the DGP said. 

Among the A-category gangsters, Harry Chattha, Gopi Ghanshyampuria, Jaipal, Dilpreet, Rinda and Teerath Thakur were still out there, Inspector General Neelabh Kishore said. Chattha and Ghanshyampuri were believed to be associated with Gounder, police said. Kishore heads the Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU) formed to nab dreaded criminals operating in the state. The IG said all of those gangsters were facing charges of crimes like murder, extortion etc. 

The Punjab police had announced a Rs 2 lakh reward to anyone providing any clue about the gangsters. Notably, most-wanted gangster Vicky Gounder and 2016 Nabha jail break mastermind Prema Lahoria were gunned down by the Police yesterday in an encounter near a village in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar district. 

Punjab police had earlier announced a reward of Rs 7 lakh to anyone giving any information about Gounder, who had become a headache for the Punjab police after he and five other prisoners escaped from the high-security Nabha Jail in November 2016. Since then, Gounder was successful in dodging the police on several occasions.