Inter-state gang busted; 11 held for looting wheat bags from godowns
FARIDKOT : Police have busted an inter-state gang that was involved in looting rice and wheat bags from godowns across the state with the arrest of 11 people in the town on Saturday. One accused gave the police the slip.
Two pistols of .32 bore, seven cartridges, one rifle, two toy guns and sharp-edged weapons have been recovered from the accused. They are Mohan Singh, Satnam Singh, Satpal Singh, Gurbachan Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Lovepreet Singh, Ravi Das, Amar Singh, Mukhtiar Singh and Nachttar singh. Manjit Singh is absconding.
Faridkot senior superintendent of police Raj Bachan Singh Sandhu said, “The accused used to lock up the security guard during the course of their robbery. They shifted the looted bags to an empty godown in a truck. A day or two later, they sold their booty in Jalalabad.”
The SSP added that the accused had admitted to selling the looted rice and wheat to two parties of Jalalabad in Fazilka district, like Vinod Kumar Kakkar and Ashok Kumar, while the second party they sold the looted stuff to was Raj Kumar and Samanjit Singh, alias Teja.
“Police have arrested Raj Kumar and Samanjit Singh and also recovered 663 bags including 120 rice and 543 wheat bags. We have launched an operation to arrest the second party who bought from these men,” added Sandhu.
The accused are yet to be produced in court. Police have claimed that Mohan Singh was the kingpin of the gang and was wanted in five criminal cases registered against him in Punjab and Rajasthan.
With these arrests, the police claim to have solved four cases registered under sections 393 (attempt to commit robbery), 395 (dacoity), 342 (wrongful confinement), 457 (house trespass) and 380 (theft) of the IPC registered in police stations across the district.