30kg gold looted in Ludhiana

POLICE SAID THAT FOUR MEN, TWO OF THEM MASKED, ENTERED THE BRANCH OF A FINANCE FIRM AND EXECUTED THE CRIME IN 25 MINUTES

LUDHIANA: Five armed men made off with around 30kg gold ornaments valued at ₹12 crore (approx) and ₹ 3 lakh cash from the branch of a finance company, India Infoline Finance Limited (IIFL), on Gill Road in Ludhiana on Monday morning.

Police said four men, two of them masked, entered the branch and executed the crime in 25 minutes, keeping the staff at gunpoint, while the fifth one waited outside in a Maruti Suzuki Ciaz car in which they all drove off towards Malerkotla Road. The robbers also took along the digital video recorder (DVR). Police suspect the role of some insider.

A case of robbery has been filed against the unidentified accused at Division 6 police station.

The accused entered the bank around 9.45am and, at gunpoint, sought the keys of the chest. There were no customers at the time and the branch doesn’t have a security guard. The chest was open as a customer had left the branch only minutes previously.

Images of the men have been captured in the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in the market. The shopkeepers learnt about the incident only after employees raised an alarm once the robbers fled with booty.

Branch manager Harpreet Singh told the police that the men held employees captive in a cabin. “They collected the gold in four bags,” he said.

Police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal, deputy commissioner of police Ashwani Kapoor and additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, City 2) Jaskiranjit Singh Teja visited the crime scene.

Gurpreet Kaur, the lone woman employee of the branch office, said when she reached the office around 10am, everything seemed normal from outside. “I stepped inside only to find armed robbers holding my colleagues captive at gunpoint,” she said.

“The robbers snatched my mobile phone after pointing a gun at me, and locked me inside the same cabin where my colleagues were being held,” said Gurpreet.