2 youths convicted in robbery case

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 22

A local court on Wednesday convicted two Moga youths in a case of trespassing and robbing two students at a rented house in Sector 22. The quantum of sentence will be be pronounced on Thursday. Harpinder Singh, a native of Moga, had lodged a complaint that three to four persons barged into his room at 4 am on June 23, 2014, and assaulted him, along with his friend Vinay Kumar, a native of Kurukshetra.

They were reportedly asked to do this by two NRIs, who wanted to avenge a two-year-old enmity with Harpinder. It was said they thrashed Harpinder and sent his video footage to the NRIs in the US.

The accused had made his nude video after tying him. They also pointed pistol on his head. Later, they fled after taking away his gold chain and purse, containing Rs 40,000, two ATM cards and some documents. However, the video charge could not be proved in the court.

Jaswinder Singh and Jaswant Singh have been convicted while Gurcharan, alias Rinku, is still facing trial in the case as his challan was submitted in the court with some delay. They were booked under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 392 (robbery), 452 (house-trepass), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120- B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

One of the accused shot dead in encounter

The UT police in June 2014 had shot dead one of the accused, Sukhdev Singh, and his gunman on the outskirts of Moga.

A team of the Crime Branch of the Chandigarh Police, led by Inspector Ranjodh Singh, was in Moga to arrest Sukhdev. When the policemen tried to arrest him, his gunman allegedly opened fire at them. The police retaliated and the gun battle lasted for more than 20 minutes. Sukhdev and his gunman died on the spot. Two policemen — Sub-Inspector Rajdip Singh and Head Constable Surinder Kumar - were injured. Eyewitnesses said more than 50 rounds of shots were fired from both sides.