₹50L looted from Nabha bank, guard killed; accused arrested
PATIALA/NABHA: Two motorcycleborne men shot dead a 55-yearold security guard and looted ₹50 lakh from bank officials in the New Grain Market area of Nabha in Patiala district on Wednesday.
The robbers, Jagdev Singh alias Taari, 35, and Amanjit Singh alias Guri, 37, of Sangrur, were arrested within four hours from Sangrur and the looted money was recovered, said police. While Amanjit is son of a retired Punjab Police sub-inspector and owns a shop in Sangrur, Jagdev is a transporter and owns four oil tankers.
The incident, third in two months in Nabha, took place around 11am outside the State Bank of India’ s New Grain Market branch where officials had brought cash from the Patiala branch in a private car. As soon as the driver opened the car boot, the assailants shot security guard Prem Chand of Rohti village from a point-blank rage. They also pointed the weapon at the car driver and a bank employee before fleeing with a trunk containing cash on their Royal Enfield motorcycle. They also took way the security gu ar d’ s gun.
Inspector general of police AS Rai said teams were constituted and all police stations were alerted in the neighbouring districts. “The investigators started tracking down the accused and collected vital clues and CCTV footages before arrested them from Sangrur, 35km from Nabha, within four hours of the crime,” said Rai.
Police have recovered the looted cash, two weapons and a motorcycle from their possession, he said. Patiala SSP Mandeep Sid hus aid the accused carried out a recce of the bank a week ago. A police official privy to the development said after committing the crime, the accused fled towards Malerkotla and reached Sangrur via link roads. He said a mobile phone of one of the accused fell near the crime scene leading to their arrest.
DGP Suresh Arora announced a cash reward of ₹1 lakh to the Patiala police for cracking the case, but they decided to pass on the reward money to the killed bank guard’s family.