Jalandhar, April 17
In yet another daring robbery, three armed young robbers struck at the Cooperative Bank located at Pharwala village on Nurmahal-Phillaur link road, falling under Bilga police station, this morning and decamped with Rs 4.70 lakh at gunpoint.

Three armed clean-shaven youths came on a motorcycle at around 11.30 am. Two of them were masked and all of them were reportedly carrying pistols. They entered the bank and took forcibly Rs 4.70 lakh from the cashier of the bank at gunpoint and closed all staff members of the bank in a room before fleeing from the spot.

Soon after getting the information of the robbery at the Cooperative Bank, police officers reached the spot and laid nakas in various parts of the district in an effort to nab the robbers. However no robber could be nabbed till the filing of this news item.

Meanwhile, Station House Officer (SHO) of Bilga police station Onkar Singh expressed hope that the bank robbery would soon be solved and the robbers would be put behind bars as the police were trying its level best to solve the case at the earliest.

In the meantime, an FIR under Sections 392, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and 25, 54, 59 of Arms Act was registered at Bilga police station against the unkown robbers.

Jalandhar, April 17
It was a providential escape for many as a rubber factory, located in a residential area here on Ladowali Road, got engulfed in a major fire here this evening. Even as there were no reports of anyone getting injured, it took the firemen almost half-an-hour to douse the flames.

Six fire tenders were pressed into service and the firemen were yet to find out the cause that led to the explosion which caused the fire. The explosion scared many residents in the area who gathered on the spot demanding closing or shifting of the factory.

When Deputy Commissioner Ajit Singh Pannu and SSP Arpit Shukla reached the spot , the residents lodged their protest saying that the factory was fire-prone and many incidents of the sort had taken place here in the recent past.

The residents also pleaded that the factory was causing immense pollution as they said the stench was unbearable in the evening and they could not sleep at night in the open as their faces and clothes would turn black due to soot emanating from the chimney.

The DC and the SSP assured the residents that they would get the matter checked with the officials from the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and take suitable action.

Jalandhar, April 17
The district police are carrying scientific investigation to solve the dramatic theft of two kilo golden jewellery from Paras Bhardwaj jewellery shop located near Dayanand Chowk in Garha falling under police division number seven.

“We have written to service provider concerned to provide call details of past three months of the mobile number from which a woman, reportedly a member of the gang of thieves, had called the owner of jewellery shop, Anil Kumar,” said the police.

“Further, the police was also going to release the sketch of the two thieves, including a woman and a man, who had come to the shop to steal the bag containing the two-kilo gold,” he added.The two thieves had come to Anil Kumar’s jewellery shop in the morning and bought an artificial jewellery of Rs 250.

Following which, he requested Anil Kumar to let his sit in the shop for some time as their mother was going to join at this shop.

In the meantime, the owner of an adjacent shop called him and said that there was a call for him on his landline number.

The call was from some woman who identified herself as Renu. As he did not know any such woman, he returned to his shop. To his surprise, he found his bag containing the golden jewellery and the two persons missing from his shop.

At this, they started calling back the woman at her number, which they had noted from the land-line telephone which had ID caller. On repeated calls, the mobile phone was switched off.

Phagwara, April 17
In a major achievement, the Phagwara police today succeeded in solving the mystery of a blind murder of Ram Murti. a resident of Jalandhar, whose body was found near a well in nearby Bohani village in the wee hours of April 7.

Addressing a news conference here today, DSP H.P.S. Khakh disclosed that four killers, including victim’s own brother-in-law Sukhwinder Singh alias Chhinda of Maksoodan and three others,William alias Gupta of Janta Colony, Maksoodan, Ramesh Sahota and Neeraj alias Neeta of Lamma Pind Road in Jalandhar district, had been arrested under Sections 302/34 of the IPC today.

DSP, while narrating the episode, said Ram Murti was living in his in-laws' house at Maksoodan in Jalandhar after a long matrimonial dispute. Sukhwinder Singh alias Chhinda, his brother-in law, did not tolerate him and could not forget the mental torture of his sister Sukhwinder Kaur by her deceased husband. DSP said the arrested Sukhwinder disclosed during interrogation that his sister Sukhwinder was working as beautician in Shanti Vihar, Jalandhar, and the deceased was earning nothing and was spending her earnings to fulfill his own requirements for drugs.

Sukhwinder hatched a conspiracy with his friend William and they hired Ramesh Sahota and his brother Neeraj who appeared before the deceased as travel agents and told the deceased that they can send him abroad. They asked him to meet them along with his passport.

According to the plan, the deceased came to them near a wine shop where they had drinks. They then took him to the nearby fields of Bohani village, asking him that they had arranged his meeting with the main travel agent.

Sukhwinder, during interrogation, confessed that they had strangled Ram Murti when he was under the influence of liquor and then he was mercilessly beaten to death by bricks. The police has also recovered a scooter of the deceased (PB-18-4337) lying near the body of the deceased.

The DSP disclosed that police has also seized the motorcycle of the killers used by them for the killing.