450 bags of wheat looted in 90 minutes

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Batala, August 3

Half a dozen unarmed men tied two armed security guards to chairs, gagged their mouth, loaded a truck with 450 wheat bags before making good their escape.

The robbers looted the food stocks from a godown of the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation located 3 km away from the city on the Dera Baba Nanak road.

Police officers say the theft stands out not for its monetary value but for the speed with which the bags were loaded on the truck.

Officers investigating the case said that only professional labourers could have done the job as it was impossible for common thieves to stack the vehicle in such a short span of time.

SSP Daljinder Singh Dhillon said that personnel informed him that the truck was loaded in 90 minutes. “Common thieves can not load 450 bags in 90 minutes. That is the reason why we have taken a dozen labourers into custody from different parts of the city. They are being questioned,” he said.

Police teams had been despatched to the neighbouring district of Gurdaspur on basis of clues taken from CCTVs installed at different places on the Batala-Dera Baba Nanak road.

The godown is located on an isolated place, at least 3 km away from habitation.

The police have registered a case on basis of a complaint filed by Major Singh, an employee of the warehouse.

The two private guards, Sukhpreet Singh and Daniel Masih, told the investigators that five men approached them around 2am and told them that they were trying to locate a colleague who had ‘gone missing after drinks.”

A few minutes later after the guards offered them water, two of the accused suddenly started shouting abuses at them. Taken aback, Sukhpreet Singh readied his gun to fire in the air. However, he was overpowered and so was Daniel Masih.

The both of them were tied to chairs and their mobile phones were snatched. Five minutes after the security men were overpowered, a truck arrived on the scene.

All the six started loading the bags and after 90 minutes the truck sped away.

Around 6am today, some villagers noticed that the daily routine of the guards greeting them on the road was missing. They entered the premises only to see both of them tied up to chairs. The cops were immediately informed.

An officer said that the involvement of the guards was not being ruled out.