Companion kills Abohar truck driver near Nakodar, flees with Rs 9 lakh and truck

A truck driver from Abohar’s Sitto Gunno village was robbed of Rs 9 lakh and killed, allegedly by his companion, on their way back from Ludhiana to Abohar on Wednesday.

His body was thrown into a pit near Nakodar and set on fire. The Nakodar police recovered the partially burnt body and registered a case.

The accused has been identified as Azad Singh of Abohar.

Chander Pal, a fruit supplier of Abohar, said that on February 9, the truck driver, Praveen Kumar, took a truck loaded with fruit to Ludhiana. Next day, he unloaded the consignment in Ludhiana and received Rs 9 lakh for it before leaving for Abohar.

However, his phone was later found switched off.

Chander said he contacted people in Ludhiana and found that Praveen's companion, Azad Singh, was accompanying him.

CCTV footage from a toll plaza near Nakodar showed that Azad was driving the truck while Praveen was not with him.

Following this, the family started looking for Praveen and learnt that a man's partially burnt body had been found in a pit near Nakodar, which was found to be that of Praveen. The body bore deep injury marks, one of its legs was missing and its lower part was completely burnt.

Lodging a complaint with the Nakodar police, Chander alleged that Azad killed Praveen and set the body on fire before fleeing with the money and the truck.

On Thursday, the Nakodar police handed over the body to the family after the post-mortem. His last rites were performed at his native village in the evening.

Praveen was an only son and a bachelor.