A month after the arrest of notorious gangster Rajan Bhatti, a key operative of Canada-based terrorist Lakhbir Singh, alias Landa, from Sector 71 in Mohali, State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) nabbed his associate on Wednesday.

The accused was identified as Chetan Kakkar, 34, of Amritsar, who runs a finance company under the name of CK Financial Services in his hometown.

AIG Simrat Kaur, SSOC, Mohali, said that Kakkar was arrested in 2012 in an attempt to murder case at Batala City police station following which he was lodged in Gurdaspur jail where he came in contact with Rajan Bhatti, a key aide of Canada-based terrorist Lakhbir Singh alias Landa.

“Chetan was a member of Shiv Sena Hindustan. Then, he started his own party named Hindu Rashtra Sena. Due to threat perception, he got security from Punjab Police. Both Chetan and Bhatti again came in contact after the former started living in Kharar. Bhatti was running an international network of drug and weapon smuggling. Later, Chetan also joined him,” AIG said.

Police officials stated that Chetan allegedly arranged hideouts for Rajan who frequently shifted his residence in Mohali. Chetan also gave money to Rajan for drug related activities.

“Both the accused supplied drugs to their clients while travelling in luxury cars. They lived a lavish lifestyle using drug money. One BMW car was recovered from Rajan Bhatti at the time of his arrest. More luxury cars are yet to be recovered which have been used by them for drug smuggling. Chetan also is a drug addict”, AIG added.

Chetan, according to the police, escaped to Dubai after Rajan was arrested last month following which a look-out circular (LOC) was issued against him by SSOC, Mohali.

After Chetan came to India from Dubai on March 9 and landed at Hyderabad Airport, he was detained by airport authorities and later handed over to SSOC Mohali officials.