Tarn Taran dera robbery cracked; 6 accused arrested, money recovered

Tribune News Service

Tarn Taran/Chandigarh, March 6

Punjab Police have cracked the Dera Baba Jagtar Singh robbery case of Tarn Taran with the arrest of six men and recovered the entire stolen amount of Rs 1.66 crore.

While Rs 1.13 crore was recovered by the Tarn Taran police, Rs 53 lakh was seized by the Amritsar police, said DGP Dinkar Gupta, congratulating Tarn Taran SSP Dhruv Dahia and his team, along with the Amritsar Police Commissionerate for their outstanding work in cracking the case in such a short span.

Extensive research, intelligence inputs and technical analysis had worked together to help police solve the case so quickly, he added.

The accused have been identified as Sukhwinder Singh, Tarsem Singh, Balwinder Singh, Sukhchain Singh, residents of Amritsar district, and Satnam Singh and Ravi, residents Tarn Taran district.

After the robbery on the night of February 24, police had registered an FIR against unidentified people based on the statement of Baba Mohinder Singh.

Based on the CCTV footage, police identified the accused, who escaped towards Amritsar. While Sukhchain was arrested on February 28, Satnam was nabbed the next day.

Investigation revealed that they had planned the robbery. Satnam used to work as a driver in the dera and had knowledge of its working. Satnam contacted Sukhchain, who had a criminal background, for putting a team in place for executing the robbery.

Sukhchain, who had recently come out of the Amritsar jail, then roped in the other accused, said the DGP.

Barring Sukhchain, all other five accused came to the dera in a Swift car on the night of the robbery and two of them stayed in the car.

During investigation, it became clear that no weapon had been used. The Swift car was recovered from Balwinder.

According to the DGP, the Tarn Taran police recovered Rs 12 lakh of the stolen cash from the house of Sukhchain and around Rs 5.65 lakh from the house of Satnam. Based on further questioning of Sukhchain, Rs 95.5 lakh was recovered on March 5 by a team led by the Tarn Taran DSP.

Sukhchain confessed that he had converted part of the cash into US dollars from a shop in Amritsar. He then put the US dollars and Rs 4.5 lakh in cash in a locker in the Punjab and Sindh Bank in Amritsar.

The money was recovered from the bank on March 5. Investigation into the case is on, said the DGP.