₹8.8 lakh loot: Kingpin among five arrested
AMRITSAR CASE Half of the loot amount, pistol, knife recovered; 2 absconding
AMRITSAR: The police claimed to have cracked the ₹8.8 lakh loot case here on Friday. Five people including the alleged kingpin of the gang were arrested. The arrested accused are Varinder Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Pardeep Kumar, Palwinder Singh alias Paras and alleged kingpin Gurdeep Singh.
The robbery took place on July 24 during which three youths snatched a bag containing ₹8.8 lakh from one Narain Dass, 45. Dass is a petrol pump employee here. The incident happened when the victim was going to a bank to deposit the money. The incident took place near the Alpha One Mall. The robbers also attacked him with knife causing injury on victim’s hand as well as fired at him with a pistol.
Two police teams were constituted to solve the high profile robbery. One was led by Maqboolpura station house officer (SHO) inspector Varinder Kumar and the other was led by Sultanwind SHO inspector Neeraj Kumar. Additional dep- uty commissioner of police (city-1) (ADCP) Charanjit Singh, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) (east) Prabhjot Singh Virk and other senior cops were assigned to supervise the operation.
During a press conference, commissioner SS Srivastava said, “The CCTV footages were of great help in tracing the accused. The accused persons belong to Sultanwind area.”
“The kingpin, Gurdeep Singh alias Tony, lured the youth of the area for snatchings and projected himself as a powerful man. He had called other gang members at his home on Thursday to share the loot money. We conducted a raid and arrested the five,” said Srivastava.
However, only ₹4,31, 400 could be recovered from the posses- sion of the accused. The key accused has given half of the amount to his son, who is absconding, said Srivastava.
A country-made pistol which was allegedly purchased from UP, and knife used in the crime, were also recovered, said Charanjit Singh. “Another accused is also absconding and efforts are being made to nab him,” said ADCP.