M A I N   N E W S

Four held for Jalandhar bank robbery
Anuradha Shukla
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 12
A “doodhwala” (milkman) of Batala was the brain behind the sensational daylight robbery in Uco Bank here. The police today said they had arrested four members of a dreaded gang of robbers from the sleepy township of Batala and the gang was responsible for 11 bank robberies since the year 2001.

The head of this gang, Manjinder Singh, alias Laddi, worked as regular milkman selling milk to houses in nearby areas. Along with Manjinder, resident of Marrianwala village, the police arrested Charanpreet Singh of Udho Nangal, Majitha, Sakkattar Singh of Mehta and Shamsher Singh, alias, Shera, resident of Mehta, have been arrested in connection with the Uco Bank robbery and a number of previously unsolved cases of robbery.

DGP S.S. Virk said the robbers confessed to a number of robberies in the Majha and Doaba region. He was while addressing a press conference here today.

The DGP said that an amount of Rs 61 lakh had also been recovered from their possession. The police are on the look-out for another two persons involved with the gang. They have admitted to committing a spate of bank robberies in the Majha and Doaba areas in the past five years. Besides the recovery of cash, the police has also seized two .32 bore revolvers, one .303 bore pistol, one 12 bore revolver, 27 live cartridges and 42 empty cartridges.

He further informed that 450 grams of heroin had also been seized from Manjinder Singh and 350 grams from Charanpreet Singh.

The DGP said he monitored the entire operation while the field operations were supervised by the ADGP, Law and Order, Mr Chander Shekhar. A shirt left by the culprits on the scene of the crime lead the police team to Batala as the shirt bore a tag of a tailor from Batala.

Manjinder was carrying over Rs 25 lakh, one .32-bore pistol, and 450 gram heroin. A case under Sections 411, IPC, 21, NDPS Act, and 25 Arms Act has been registered against him. It was his questioning which led to the arrest of Charanpreet Singh, Sakkattar Singh and Shamsher Singh, alias Shera. Further questioning led to the recovery of Rs 36,30,510, one .32 bore pistol, .12 bore pistol, .303 bore pistol, and 350 gram of heroin. A case under Sections 144, 411, IPC, 21, under the NDPS Act and 25, Arms Act, has been registered against the other three. The money recovered bears the stamps of the bank, said the DGP Virk. The police has also impounded two scooters used in the bank robbery.

Giving details about the confessions of the robbers, the DGP said that the gang had committed robberies in Cooperative Bank, Beas, and looted Rs 1.2 lakh in 2001, in Punjab National Bank on, Tanda, looting Rs 15.5 lakh in 2002, in Uco Bank Model Town Branch, Jalandhar, looting 16.5 lakh, in Oriental Bank of Commerce, Tanda, looting Rs 1,38,533 in 2002, in State Bank of Patiala, Lakhan ke Padde, Subhanpur, in Kapurthala, looting Rs 7 lakh. They had also confessed to having committed a robbery at the Punjab National bank branch in Bholath in Kapurthala district in which they looted Rs 4.5 lakh in October this year. The gang had looted Rs 63 lakh from the Uco Bank branch situated at Nakodar road on November 10, said the DGP Virk.

Batala:The four persons — Manjinder Singh, Sakattar Singh, Shamsher Singh and Charanpreet Singh — arrested for the robbery of Rs 65 lakh in Jalandhar were produced in the court of Mr Jaswinder Singh, Judicial Magistrate (First Class), Batala, today. They were remanded in police custody till November 19.