Dry fruit robbery: Cops suspect insider role, traders meet senior officials, express concern over security

A day after sensational robbery in which around 30 persons looted dry fruit worth over Rs 2 crore from a cold storage, the police suspect the role an insider in the incident.

“The robbers targeted only selected items from the storage facility. They knew its location which hints at the role of some insider in the robbery,” said Charanjit Singh, SSP Amritsar (Rural).

It appears to be all planned as miscreants came fully prepared, he said. This is first of its kind incident in which armed looters targeted a cold storage facility. The incident has created panic among the trading community. There are around 12 cold storage facilities located in the holy city and majority of them are situated on Jhabal Road, Tarn Taran Road and Mehta Road. There are two cold storages at Ibban Kalan village on Jhabal Road.

Happy Arora, owner of the AK Cold Storage, said out of 30 suspects seven were carrying firearms. They gained entry into the storage facility by jumping over the boundary wall. He said the suspects took labourers and two watchmen hostage. They had brought two trucks with them and loaded “small items” from the cold storage premises on the vehicles. They left around 4 am. Labourers came out of the cold storage facility after breaking a window and called Arora on his cellphone. “The suspects broke a table and drawers and took away the DVR with them,” Arora said.

Anil Mehra, an importer and president of the Federation of Karyana and Dry Fruit Association, said unscrupulous elements had decamped with cashew nut, fig, resins and black pepper. Fig was imported from Afghanistan while the remaining items were from different parts of the country, he said.

“Traders have lost goods worth several crores in the incident. Many traders in the Majith Mandi had stored their goods at the AK Cold Storage,” he said.

Members of the Federation of Karyana and Dry Fruit Association along with Indo-Foreign Chamber of Commerce held a meeting in Majith Mandi area for expressing concern over yesterday’s incident. “It is an unprecedented incident. The police should arrest the suspects immediately,” said BK Bajaj, president, Indo-Foreign Chamber of Commerce.

Traders also met SSP Charanjit Singh and raised their security concerns. The SSP pointed out lapses on part the cold storage owners that led to the incident. He asked them to hire adequate number of security personnel for safety, besides raising boundary walls of the cold storage facilities.

“There were only two private guards and that too without any firearms. The boundary wall is also of small height which made it easy for miscreants to scale it,” the SSP said. There were also no CCTV cameras on the way leading to the storage facility, he added.

He advised traders to create deterrence and obstructions such as boom barriers on way to the facility. He also assured them to arrest the suspects and crack the case. He said a police post could be st up in the area. It was a challenge to secure such a vast area near the crime spot, the SSP added.

Meanwhile, the police claim to have found some clues about the suspects after scanning footage of the CCTV cameras installed within an 8 km radius of the crime spot.