8 held for looting cars, killing driver

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 20

The police nabbed eight members of a gang involved in killing a driver and injuring another before dumping him on a road, believing that he was dead. The accused took away their cars.

The Rampura (City) police have recovered two cars, one countrymade pistol, two live cartridges, two swords, one stick, one sharp-edged weapon and a baseball bat from them.

While addressing a press conference, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dr Nanak Singh said the accused had been identified as Gagandeep Singh, Vishnu and Balkar Singh, residents of Panniwala Mori village in Haryana, Sukhpreet Singh alias Sukha, Balwant Singh alias Banty and Kulwant Singh alias Happy, residents of Burj Gill village, Tejinder Singh alias Deepu and Sahil Kumar, residents of Rampura.

He said SHO Gurpreet Kaur’s team on Thursday evening, acting on a tip-off, conducted a raid on the Sidhana canal bridge and arrested the accused.

During interrogation, the accused said the Ritz car, which had been recovered by the police, was hired from Gurugram in Haryana. After killing its driver, they had thrown his body in a river near Maujgarh in Rajasthan.

The deceased driver was Bitta Garg from Churu district in Rajasthan and a case regarding this incident has been registered at the Badarpur police station in Gurugram.

The actual number of the Ritz car was HR 55 W 0391, whereas the accused had installed a wrong number plate (PB 03 B 4852), the SSP said.

He added that similarly, a Swift Dzire car was recovered by the police from the accused, which had hired from Gurugram. They had thrown the driver of the car believing him to be dead in the Kalianwali area of Haryana, but residents of the area saved him, he said.

He has been identified as Yogesh Kumar, a resident of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.

A case regarding this has been registered against them at the Kalianwali police station. The actual number of the car was DL 1 WE 6276 while the accused had installed fake number PB 03 G 3388.

The SSP claimed that cases of drugs and illicit liquor smuggling had also been registered against the accused.

He said the members of this gang also used to get the fuel tanks of their vehicles at petrol pumps in the district without paying any money by threatening the pump workers with weapons. They would later flee from the spot, he added.

Dr Nanak Singh said all accused were habitual drug addicts and to become rich, they took to the world of crime.

Cars hired from Gurugram

• During interrogation, the accused said the Ritz car, which had been recovered by the police, was hired from Gurugram in Haryana. After killing its driver, they had thrown his body in a river near Maujgarh in Rajasthan.
• The deceased driver was Bitta Garg from Churu district in Rajasthan and a case regarding the incident has been registered at the Badarpur police station in Gurugram
• He added that similarly, a Swift Dzire car was recovered by the police from the accused, which had been hired from Gurugram. They had thrown out the driver of the car believing him to be dead in the Kalianwali area of Haryana, but residents of the area saved him, he said.
• The car driver has been identified as Yogesh Kumar, a resident of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh

Would not pay for fuel at petrol pumps

• The SSP claimed that cases of drugs and illicit liquor smuggling had also been registered against the accused. 
• He said the members of this gang also used to get the fuel tanks of their vehicles filled at petrol pumps in the district without paying any money by threatening the pump workers with weapons. They would later flee from the spot, he added.