Chandigarh, April 1 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has declined to interfere with a Punjab Police decision to label a Moga resident as a gangster. The high court observed that the petitioner has been declared a gangster as a "precautionary measure" and further has not been denied any benefit otherwise permissible in law to him. The petition was filed by Mandeep Singh alias Dhroo, who, according to the police, was head of the 'Dharoo' gang. It was in 2019 that the plaintiff had approached the high court demanding that the Punjab government be directed to remove his name from the list of gangster s. According to the plea, he is serving a life sentence in a murder case, and his argument was that his name has been put on the list of gangsters without any basis, which has resulted in the denial of parole. The petitioner had also filed a representation in May 2019 before the authorities to remove his name from the list of gangsters, but to no avail. "There is no statutory provision to declare any prisoner/convict as a gangster. The respondent has framed a policy, and as per that policy, a criminal may be declared a gangster. The petitioner does not fall within the said policy; thus, he was wrongly and illegally declared a gangster," the plea had argued. On the other hand, the state's counsel had told the court that his case was examined by the authorities. He was found involved in 17 FIRs. There are many FIRs under Sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC. He was head of the 'Dharoo' gang, the government counsel had said. "He has not challenged the policy under which he was declared a gangster. He duly falls under said policy. It is a preventive measure. He has not been detained on the basis of being declared a gangster," the government counsel had reasoned. The bench of justice Jagmohan Bansal noted that the government has framed a policy wherein parameters have been laid down to declare any criminal as gangster. The case of the petitioner was duly examined, and it was found that he is the head of the 'Dharoo' gang and was implicated in 17 FIRs and awarded life imprisonment in one FIR. He was implicated in multiple FIRs registered under Sections 307 and 302 of the IPC, the court further noted. "He has not been detained under any preventive law, whereas, as per policy, he has been declared a gangster as a precautionary measure. During the course of the hearing, learned state counsel has submitted that petitioner, at present, is on bail, which indicates that he has not been denied any benefit otherwise permissible in law," the high court said while dismissing the plea....