M A I N   N E W S

All-player gang of car jackers busted in Punjab
Aman Sood & Surinder Bhardwaj/TNS

Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, February 23
At one point, they were sportsmen, overeager to do ever better. They tasted drugs for sometime, only to realise that they were addicts. Money came and went as swiftly as the Fortuner vehicle that they first robbed, earning the "Fortuner gang" moniker.

The Fatehgarh Sahib police on Thursday charged Pawan Kumar, Gurjinder Singh, Atinder Singh and Mandeep Singh under various sections of the IPC. These include dacoity, forgery and keeping firearms. Three other members of the all-sportsmen team are absconding, police said.

Bikramjit Singh Brar, in charge, Crime Investigating Agency, Sirhind, said Pawan Kumar is a resident of Phagwara and a national-level wrestler, who also attended the junior national camp for Asian Games. Gurjinder is national-level kabaddi player and belongs to Ludhiana. He was recently selected as a constable in the Ludhiana police. His joining is pending subject to his character verification.

Atinder Singh alias Hunter is a national-level shot putter and wrestler Mandeep Singh alias Pistauli is a resident of Ludhiana.

"While a gang member admitted that he had as many as 30 girlfriends on whom he spent a large part of his earnings from crime, two of them are addicted to heroin," said Brar.

The gang had two flats in Chandigarh that were used to "hibernate" after committing crime.

Brar said, "Besides stealing luxury vehicles, the gang looted cash amounting to Rs 1.1 crore. We have seized cash worth Rs 1.1 lakh, one 32 bore pistol with cartridges, one rifle with cartridges, and a Safari and Zen cars."

The gang members said they received drugs regularly. "I was injured and needed money. I couldn't get from sports, so I joined them," said one of them, requesting that his name should not be quoted, claiming his family didn't know his whereabouts.

MF Farooqui, DIG Ludhiana Range, said the gang members first identified their victim and followed him for some days. "Once they were confident, they would steal a luxury car from some other place in Punjab, alter its number plate, confront the identified victim and rob him," he said. "They would fire into the air to terrorise the victim." The accused allegedly procured illegal weapons from Uttar Pradesh.

"The initial interrogation revealed that they sold the stolen cars in UP. One of the absconding members is a car dealer," Brar said.

The accused had snatched a Fortuner from Patiala and used it to loot Rs 8 lakh in Mandi Gobindgarh and Rs 43 lakh from Bonn Bread employees, police said.

Then, they stole a Honda Civic and Rs 4 lakh in cash from a trader in Ludhiana. They used the vehicle for looting Rs 29 lakh from the employees of Kitty Bread, Ludhiana, and Rs 20 lakh from the employees of Garg Industry, Sahnewal. They stole Rs 5 lakh from the Airtel Office.

Later, they lifted a Honda Accord from Ludhiana, a Fortuner from Fatehgarh Sahib and a Mercedes, along with cash and a laptop from the Focal Point area in Ludhiana.