Ludhiana salon owner lends his licensed weapon for Rs 1 lakh to robbers; arrested

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Ludhiana, February 2

The Ludhiana police on Thursday busted a gang of looters and arrested three of its members. Interestingly, one of the gang members who runs a salon in city had lent his licenced .32 bore weapon on a rent of Rs 1 lakh for committing snatchings and robberies in city.

Those arrested have been identified as Ravinder Singh alias Ravi of Model Town Extension, David Raj of Pakhowal road and Vishal Verma of Rishi Nagar, Haibowal.

Police also recovered a motorcycle, a scooter, a car, and one .32 bore pistol along with two live cartridges from the gang members. A case under various sections of IPC and under Arms Act was registered against the accused.

Police Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu, JCP Saumya Mishra, Additional DCP Rupinder Kaur Sran, ACP Ramandeep Bhullar, SHO Kotwali Sanjiv Kapoor addressed a press conference on the matter.

CP Mandeep Sidhu said accused Vishal Verma runs a salon in Sarabha Nagar market and he had lent his licensed weapon to the other two criminals for committing crime in December last year and in lieu he had taken Rs 1 lakh as “rent” from the accused.

“Vishal was aware that his licensed weapon would be used for snatchings and robberies hence he played an equal role in operation of gang. Now his weapon has been impounded and weapon licence would be cancelled with immediate effect,” added CP Sidhu.

Recently, the gang had entered a hotel in Kotwali area to commit a robbery but they were unsuccessful in their attempt. For the past over two months the gang had committed 13 snatchings and robberies of which some were not reported by the victims, revealed CP Sidhu.

Among the 13 incidents committed by the gang, the major incident was of loot from the money changer shop on Pakhowal but the shop owner had not lodged any complaint of loot with the police.

Others incidents include loot from paan shops, roadside vendors, migrants etc, said ADCP Rupinder Kaur. Now police remand of these accused would be sought from court so that their entire criminal record could be scanned and their involvement in other major loot incidents can be verified, added ADCP Rupinder.