Robbers shoot two men dead at petrol pump in Patiala
PATIALA : Two men, including a truck driver, were killed after three armed robbers struck at a petrol pump on the Patiala-zirakpur highway on Sunday night.
The incident took place at around 10:30pm when three unidentified men on a Royal Enfield (Bullet) motorcycle held employees of the Guru Nanak filling station at Chamarheri village captive at gunpoint.
Seeing this, Kuldeep Singh, a driver who was refueling his truck, tried to confront the robbers but was overpowered by them. They fired at him from a point blank range with a .32 pistol.
The assailants then asked one of the employees, Laddi, to hand over the money. They frisked him and found ₹6,000 in his pocket. They then searched Kuldeep, who was lying in a pool of blood, and took ₹5,000 from him.
Hearing the gunshots, Davinder Singh of Alampur village, who was sitting at his friend’s dhaba adjacent the petrol pump, rushed there and tried to nab one of the robbers. The robbers fired two gunshots at Davinder and attacked him with a sharp-edged weapon.
The injured were rushed to the Government Rajindera Hospital, Patiala, where they were declared brought dead.
Additional inspector general (AIG) Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, who is heading the organised crime control unit (OCCU), also visited the spot to ascertain the role of gangsters in the incident.
Patiala superintendent of police (SP headquarters) Kanwardeep Kaur said they have collected crucial evidences from the spot and also gathered CCTV (closed-circuit television camera) footage from cameras installed at the petrol pump and a toll plaza situated nearly 500 metres from the crime spot.
“The crime has been caught in a camera in which the assailants were seen killing one of the victims at the petrol pump. Special teams have been constituted to investigate the matter thoroughly,” the SP said. A senior police official said they have zeroed in on one of the accused on the basis of CCTV footage.