Gang involved in looting goods from factories busted, 6 held

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana September 21

The city police have busted a gang active in looting goods from factories after holding the guards or factory workers captive at gunpoint during night.

The police have arrested six persons and recovered the goods that was looted by them. Police Commissioner Rakesh Agrawal addressed a press conference in this regard.

The accused have been identified as Yakir Hussain (28), a resident of Company Bagh; Ranjan Kumar (23) of Sarpanch colony; Rakesh Kumar (42) of Amardas colony; Sarik Saifi (22) of Gulabi Bagh; Kulwinder Singh (33) of Bazigar colony and Raman Kumar (38) of Bhai Himmat Singh Nagar.

Kulwinder and Raman are scrap dealers, who used to buy the looted goods. The kingpin and five other members of the gang, however, are still at large.

The police have recovered a .32 pistol with six live cartridges, a Maruti car, Tata Ace, motorcycle, 80-kg nickle, 80-kg aluminium and 5 quintal brass from the accused.

CP Agrawal said: “This gang used to conduct a recce in Focal Point and industrial area to see factories which could become a soft target at night. Whenever they barged into any factory premises, they used to hold the workers or security guard captive and then load factory goods in their vehicles.”

Yakir and Ranjan are already facing six criminal cases against them and in some of the cases, they have also been declared proclaimed offenders.

DCP SPS Dhindsa said two days’ police remand of the accused were sought from court and in further probe more goods looted by them could be recovered. Raids were on to arrest the remaining accused.

The DCP said Ranjan brought an illegal weapon from Uttar Pradesh a few months ago.

ACP Mandeep Singh said two cases of loot from factories were solved with the arrest of six members of the gang. On August 23 and September 9, the gang committed loot at Focal Point and in police division 6 jurisdiction, respectively, by holding factory guards captive at gunpoint. The police said the accused used to thrash factory guards as well.