Gangs involved in theft of transformer oil, ATMs busted

Seven, including two proclaimed offenders, arrested

Tribune News Service

Batala, November 5

A seven-member gang of robbers, which specialised in stealing oil from electricity transformers and uprooting ATMs before taking out the cash from them, has been busted by the Batala police.

Such is the importance being given to the cache that IG (Border Range), Surinder Pal Singh Parmar, rushed from Amritsar to Batala to hold a press conference. Senior officers, including SSP Rachpal Singh, were also present. The SSP said it was an inter-state gang.

A Tata Sumo vehicle, equipped with a sophisticated gas cutter and other implements used to uproot ATM machines, too, was recovered.

The SSP said residents were piqued at the regular black outs they had to face despite assurances from PSPCL officials that they were supplying round the clock power.

“We formed a special team and got to know that power outages were occurring due to theft of oil from transformers particularly those placed by the PSPCL on the Amritsar road where a majority of industrial units are located. As many as 350 such transformers were affected in the last three months. A special type of oil is used in transformers for cooling purposes. Up to 900 litres of oil can be used depending on the size of the transformer. Once oil is stolen, the transformer heats up and catches fire. Besides being a safety hazard, removing oil causes outages and monetary loss,” said the SSP.

The robbers, who included two parole jumpers, were also adept in stealing luxury vehicles which they would later sold at far-off places.

The accused have been identified as Gurpreet Singh and Jatinder Singh, both POs and parole jumpers, Deepak Kumar, Baljit Singh, Ajay Kumar, Amit Kumar and Sardar Masih.

An officer said questioning was on and they would be identifying other members of the gang soon. “We have got many clues and expect to arrest the other accused in the next few days. A special team has been formed for this purpose,” said the SSP.

The prime accused, Gurpreet Singh, was serving life imprisonment in a murder case registered against him at the Dhariwal police station.

Several ATMs of the area had also been looted by the accused.

A 32 bore pistol, 32 bore revolver, two 12 bore guns and 23 bullets of 32 bore were recovered. Five luxury cars, too, have been recovered.

“As many as six liquor vends located in and around Batala were also looted. The gang was planning another such robbery before it was busted.

Caption: IG Surinder Pal Singh Parmar and SSP Tachpal Singh addressing a press conference.