Armed men loot ₹1.33 cr from cash van after firing at driver in Banur
Six armed men targeted the Axis Bank van on busy highway around 10am
PATIALA: A meticulous plan executed in hardly a minute! Six armed men robbed ₹1.33 crore from a cash van of Axis Bank headed from Chandigarh to Rajpura after opening fire and injuring its driver close to Chitkara University near Banur, 40km from Patiala, on the busy highway, around 10am on Tuesday. Driver Sukhwant Singh was shot in the arm, and was admitted to Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala.
A meticulous plan executed in hardly a minute! Six armed men robbed ₹1.33 crore from a cash van of Axis Bank headed from Chandigarh to Rajpura after opening fire and injuring its driver close to Chitkara University near Banur, 40km from Patiala, on the busy highway, around 10am on Tuesday. Driver Sukhwant Singh was shot in the arm, and was admitted to Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala.
Here’s how they did it. As the stretch on the National Highway-64 is being relaid, the robbers had placed a Honda Amaze car in such a manner that there was space for only one other vehicle to pass. Two men stood next to it, waiting. Four others followed the bank van in a Mahindra Scorpio SUV for a few minutes before intercepting it where the Amaze was parked. All six then opened fire, and the driver was injured. One of them fired in the air and stopped traffic, and the others used a cutter to tackle the door lock and chain. They took away a box that had ₹1.33 crore in cash being taken from the Chandigarh Sector-34 branch to refill ATMs in Rajpura. They also took away the van guard’s gun.
“The robbers abandoned the Amaze car at the spot and fled in the Scorpio towards Rajpura. Panicked staff members alerted the police, and cops reached the spot at 10.30am,” narrated a witness, saying that the men had a pistol each.
“Prima facie, it looks like an act of a local gang, aware of the spot and also the cash van’s movement,” said deputy inspector general (DIG) Sukhchain Singh Gill, who reached the spot with senior superintendent of police (SSP), Patiala, S Bhupathi. Later, additional director general of police (ADGP), law and order, Rohit Chaudhry too inspected the spot.
“The Amaze car, too, had been snatched from an excise official, Nirbhai Singh, on April 11 from Banur on the same road,” said the DIG.
ALERT SOUNDED
The police set up checkpoints and alerted the Haryana police, too, as some roads in the area lead to Ambala and Panchkula. An alert
was sounded across Punjab and vigil was stepped up.
Passengers on all buses leaving Punjab through the highway were checked. Police suspect the robbers and their accomplices may try to smuggle out the cash in buses. Meanwhile, the police are also scanning closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage in the area.