Four armed men hold family hostage, loot ₹7 lakh, jewellery in Amritsar’s Attari

AMRITSAR: Four unidentified armed men, two disguised as cops, held a family hostage at gunpoint and decamped with ₹7 lakh in cash and gold jewellery worth ₹7 lakh at Attari village, 32km from the district headquarters, on Monday.

Police said the incident took place at 7.30 am when five members of the family, including a child, were present in the house.

The family runs a cold drinks agency, which is situated on the ground floor of the house.

The accused also took away a .12-bore double-barrel rifle and cartridges from the house.

House owner Jaswinder Singh said two men sporting khaki turbans, khaki trousers and white t-shirts, with handguns in holsters entered the house around early morning. “The duo asked for registration papers of my SUV, saying that it was involved in an accident on

June 26. Considering them as cops, I told them that I didn’t go out anywhere that day,” he said, adding that when he was showing the papers to “cops”, two men came outside the store and asked for cold drinks.

“I called my father from the first floor of the house to attend the customers. But before my father could come down, the men in police uniform and the two others in plain clothes trained guns at me,” he said.

“They tied my father, mother, wife and son and started asking for money,” said Jaswinder, adding that his father gave them ₹50,000, but they demanded more and threatened to kidnap his son. “My mother disclosed to the assailants where the cash and jewellery were kept,” he said. “They took away 14 tolas of gold jewellery and ₹6.5 lakh cash, besides ₹50,000 which my father gave them,” said Jaswinder.

Gharinda SHO Amandeep Singh said a case has been registered and the probe is on.