M A I N   N E W S

100 bus passengers looted near Raipur Rani
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 24
In a daring highway robbery, over 100 persons travelling in two buses, a truck and a car were looted by five persons near Dhandrawali village, 4 km from Raipur Rani, in the wee hours of the morning today. It is estimated that cash and jewellery worth over Rs 2 lakh was stolen.

The incident occurred around 3. 30 am on National Highway 73, where the miscreants had felled an eucalyptus tree in order to block the road. The police say the robbers had planned the robbery in accordance with the time table of the long route buses of Himachal Roadways passing through this stretch of the national highway. As the robbers went about their job for almost 45 minutes, there was no police patrol in the area. Even last year, an unsuccessful attempt was made to rob a Himachal Roadways bus near the same place.

It is learnt that as the robbers waited for the bus, a truck (RJ-31G- 3918) happened to pass by. Seeing the road blocked, truck driver Gurmeet, and his two helpers, got off the truck to remove the blockade and move on. “Since there was a heavy downpour, we thought that the tree could have been uprooted and fallen on the road. The moment we got down from the truck, three men pounced on us and threatened us with a sickle. They asked us to hand over whatever money we had and forcibly took away Rs 11000 from the glove compartment,” he said.

As two of the robbers reportedly kept a watch on the truck driver and his helpers, a Dehradun-bound bus (DL-1PA-1668) from Jammu, reached the spot. While one of the robbers got inside the bus and asked the 30-odd passengers to hand over all the cash and jewellery, two men, armed with lathis, remained outside and asked the people to oblige or face the consequences. About 20 persons from Gujrat, who were travelling from Jammu to Haridwar in this bus, have informed the police that the accused who boarded the bus was carrying a torch and a country made pistol. “He was being referred to by his companions as “Thakur”. They did not harm anyone and only asked the passengers to put the money and jewellery in a cloth bag, “informed two passengers, Mr Amrik Singh and his wife, Shabnam.

Just as the accused finished with the bus, another HRTC bus (HP-18A- 0317), ferrying passengers from Baijnath to Dehradun via Chandigarh, arrived. Again, one of the robbers got into the bus and looted the 65-odd persons in the bus. Mr Des Raj, a Junior Assistant at the Rohru Bus depot in Himachal Pradesh, who was on official duty to get the permits of certain buses renewed from Dehradun, said he had Rs 18000 in cash, which was taken away by the robbers.

It is learnt that a Constable of Himachal Police was also travelling in the bus, along with five Army jawans. However, none of them made any attempt to thwart the robbery.

The passengers also said that a car, which arrived later was similarly looted, before the robbers fled away. It was then that the two buses and the truck went back to the Raipur Police Station and reported the matter to the police.

When contacted, the Superintendent of Police, Panchkula, Mr Ranbir S. Sharma, told TNS that a major combing operation had been launched in the area. “We feel that the accused were some locals and hope for positive results soon. A few suspected people have also been picked up for interrogation.”

The residents of Raipur Rani showed their benevolence to the passengers of the ill-fated buses by collecting a sum of Rs 18,000 for them, so that they could resume their onward journey. They also arranged for food and got fuel filled in the two buses, so that the buses could reach the destination on time.

Krishana Parmar, a resident of Nahan town and passenger of the bus, could save her jewellery by telling the looters that she was wearing artificial jewellery. The robbers told her: “We are here not to collect duplicate material”.

Mr S.P.S. Verma, Superintendent of Police, Sirmour, visited the site today. He met officials of the Haryana Police and discussed the matter. He was assured by the Haryana Police that in future Himachal buses plying during night hours would be escorted by the Haryana police within their area.

He added that exchange of information regarding this incident between the police of the two states was on and one person of the Raipur Rani area who had recently been released from jail, was one of the suspected persons in this case. Mr Verma said all police stations in the district had been put on high alert.