Chandigarh, June 7: The Special Task Force (STF) of the Haryana Police has arrested Sampath Nehra, one of the most wanted gangsters belonging to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, from Hyderabad. With more than two dozen criminal cases pending against him in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Chandigarh, Nehra, 28, also carried a cash reward on his head and had been absconding for the past few years, before he was arrested yesterday evening, Haryana Police said.

Acting on instructions of Director General of Police B S Sandhu and Additional Director General of Police, Crime, P K Aggarwal, a team of STF Gurugram led by Inspector General of Police, Saurabh Singh and Deputy Inspector General of Police, Satish Balan had made all out efforts to arrest the accused Nehra, a native of Kishangarh, Chandigarh.

Haryana DGP B S Sandhu congratulated the STF team on the achievement.

The gangster, a resident of village Kalauri in Rajasthan's Churu district, is allegedly wanted for several heinous crime including murder, attempt to murder, robbery and contract killing. He was actively involved in contract killing, police said.

Nehra is a sharpshooter of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, had been active in students politics. The Lawrence Bishnoi gang is one of the most dreaded gangs which is also active on social media like Facebook and Whatsapp. Nehra will be brought from Hyderabad, they said.

Nehra and his gang were involved in an attempt to murder an INLD leader's brother, demanding ransom of Rs 3 crore from the owner of many medical stores in Chandigarh, opening of fire at a police team to free his associate Deepak from police custody and killing a person after looting his SUV at gunpoint in Kurukshetra area. He along with his gang member had killed Anand, a resident of Karaur, they said.

The gangster along with his colleagues had killed a man, a resident of Jaitapur in Sadulpur court in Rajgarh, Rajasthan. The accused is also charged in a murder case in Faridkot, Punjab, and killing of a retired Army personnel at Barona in Haryana, killing the husband of a woman councillor from Punjab, besides being involved in cases of ransom, murder, loot and robbery in different states.