- By Akansha Pandey
- Thu, 28 Aug 2025 05:15 PM (IST)
- Source:Jagran News Network
The Uttarakhand Police's Special Task Force (STF) has achieved a major success by arresting two members of the notorious criminal Praveen Valmiki's gang. A senior police official, SSP Navneet Bhullar, stated that Praveen Valmiki, a former member of the infamous Sunil Rathi gang with a history of murder and extortion in Haridwar, was running his entire criminal empire from inside Sitarganj Jail.
According to the SSP, the STF had been receiving secret tips from an anonymous informant for the past few months. The informant revealed that Valmiki was using his associates on the outside to threaten people, manage parking contracts in Haridwar, and illegally buy and sell valuable land, all while being in prison.
Based on this information, the STF launched an investigation. After confirming the facts, the police filed a case against six people, including Praveen Valmiki, his nephew Manish Ballar, and Pankaj Ashtwal. Acting on this, the STF arrested the two accused, Manish Ballar and Pankaj Ashtwal, on Wednesday night from Sunehra village in Haridwar.
A Story of Murder and a Shootout to Steal a Multi-Crore Property
The senior police official revealed the shocking details of the gang's crime, which centered around an extremely valuable, multi-crore property in Sunhaira village, Roorkee.
The property's real owner, Shyam Bihari, died in 2014. After his death, his younger brother, Krishna Gopal, began looking after it. In 2018, with the intention of grabbing the land, Praveen Valmiki's gang shot and killed Krishna Gopal.
After this, the property's care fell to Shyam Bihari's wife, Rekha. Praveen Valmiki began threatening her, trying to force her to sign the land over to him. When she refused, Valmiki had his nephew Manish Ballar carry out a deadly attack on her brother, Subhash, who was shot in 2019.
Terrified by these two violent attacks, Rekha and her family abandoned their home in Roorkee and went into hiding at an unknown location. As soon as they left, Praveen Valmiki and his gang used imposter women—pretending to be Rekha and the murdered brother's wife, Snehlata—to create a fake Power of Attorney (a legal document to transfer property).
The arrested associate, Pankaj Ashtwal, got this fake document made in his own name. He then used it to illegally take control of the multi-crore property and sell it off.