Chandigarh, Jan. 22 -- Around 6 am on Wednesday when half of Chandigarh was fast asleep and the other half was preparing for the day ahead, the crime branch caught three men, allegedly involved in the Sector 32 pharmacy firing case, following a brief encounter near the Sector 39 grain market.

This was the first such encounter reported in the city after 2018, when gangster Dilpreet Baba was nabbed in a similar fashion in a joint operation by Punjab and Chandigarh Police near the Inter State Bus Terminus, Sector 43.

In Wednesday morning's encounter, the two alleged shooters, Rahul, 30, Ricky, 41, were shot in the legs in retaliatory police fire, while their accomplice Preet, 32, was taken into custody from the spot, police officials said....