2 arrested for cash van robbery

JALANDHAR: Within 24 hours of the ₹1.18-crore robbery from a cash van of HDFC Bank, police in Jalandhar claimed to have solved the case with the arrest of two men here on Saturday.

While Ranjit Singh of Lakhan Khole village and Jaskaran Singh of Harchowal village, in Gurdaspur district, were nabbed, other gang members were identified as Sutinderpal Singh of Nadala, Sukhwinder Singh of Lakhan Khole village, Gurpreet Singh of Kamrawa village, Sukhdev Singh of Dala village and Hardip Singh of Lakhan Kalan village in Kapurthala district, police said. All of them are in their 30s.

At a press conference, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Jaskaran Singh said that as per the bank employees, a Tata Indigo sedan stopped in front of the cash van at Manak Rai village, 33km from district headquarters Jalandhar, and three motorcycle riders with their faces covered surrounded it. Contradicting Friday’s theory, he also said that one of the seven accused shot at and injured a gunman who was in the cash van, and dragged all of the bank employees out of the van.

He claimed that, hours after the crime on Friday, a police team in Kartarpur Cheema village in the area sought to halt the car used in the crime, “but the driver initially Ranjit sped away”. “After a four-kilometre chase, our men fired at the car and a bullet hit Ranjit. He confessed to the crime and revealed the identity of the other six, of whom Jaskaran was arrested from his village on Saturday,” DIG said.

He said the police seized the car “that had no registration plate” and a .12-bore country-made pistol with two used cartridges from the duo. The DIG said that as per the preliminary investigation the men do not have any history of crimes. Ranjit had returned from Dubai last year after living there for over a decade, he said.

7 MEN CARRIED OUT THE ~1.18CR ROBBERY AT MANAK RAI VILLAGE, 33KM FROM DISTRICT HQ JALANDHAR