Tarn Taran dera heist cracked, ₹96L recovered from accused’s house

POLICE HAD EARLIER ARRESTED SIX ACCUSED AND RECOVERED ₹70 LAKH IN THE HEIST THAT TOOK PLACE ON FEB 24

TARN TARAN: Police on Friday claimed to have solved the case of loot at a Kar Sewa centre in Tarn Taran with the recovery of ₹96 lakh from Khurnania village falling under Ajnala sub-division of Amritsar district.

The recovery was made from the house of one of the earlier arrested accused, Sukhchain Singh alias Chaina, 42, of Khurmania village, on Thursday. With this recovery, the police pegged the total recovered amount at ₹1.66 crore. Notably, Kar Sewa centre management had told the police that the accused had looted ₹1.5 crore from the centre.

Police also claimed to have arrested all six accused in the case.

They had looted the donation from a centre run by Kar Sewa, a volunteer service outfit, on Goindwal Sahib road in Tarn Taran town after holding its cashier and gatekeeper captive on February 24.

THE INCIDENT

Five-day after the loot, a special investigation team (Sit)-led by superintendent of police (SP) Jagjit Singh Walia had arrested two persons—chaina and Lakhwinder Singh, alias Lakha, 38, of Kamboke village in Amritsar.

Police had also recovered ₹12 lakh on the revelation of Chaina.

On March 2, three more persons—sukhwinder Singh alias Baba Bhundi, Balwinder Singh alias Billa and Tarsem Singh alias Gota of nearby Khurmania village—were arrested by Amritsar police with the recovery of ₹53 lakh and a .12 bore riffle from their possession.

Sixth accused Satnam Singh alias Satta of Sanghe village in Tarn Taran was arrested by the district police on March 30 and ₹5.65 lakh was recovered from him.

KAR SEWA CENTRE DRIVER ALSO INVOLVED

SP Walia said Satta worked as a driver at the centre, Dera Baba Jeevan Singh, and knew where donation money was kept. He said, “Chaina, who is a former militant, is a relative of Satta, and the duo had hatched the conspiracy to loot donation amount with the help of other accused.”

He said, “After Chaina’s arrest, we had recovered ₹12 lakh from his house. During his further interrogation, we retrieved ₹5 lakh more from his house.”

MONEY CONVERTED INTO US DOLLARS

He said during investigation, police learnt that Chaina had already converted some donation money to US dollars. We then conducted another raid at his house on Thursday and recovered 1,30,000 USD (₹96 lakh) from a locker in his house.”

The SP said they were also investigating the role of money changers who had converted the donation money into dollars.