Five of gang held for bank robberies

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 17

The Bathinda police claimed to have arrested five persons of a gang allegedly involved in looting banks in the region. Illegal weapons and bullets have been recovered from them.

The police have claimed that the gang had been active for the past three and a half years and till date, they had executed around 21 robberies.

The police said the arrested accused didn’t have any criminal background as during the day, they would work as labourers and at night, they targeted banks. Recently, they allegedly looted two banks.

Addressing the media, SP (D) Swaran Singh Khanna and DSP (S) Jasvir Singh said a CIA-2 team succeeded in arresting five members of the bank robbery gang.

They said the police received a tip-off that from Mari village to Poohli link road, a group of persons with weapons were making a plan for a robbery.

They conducted a raid and arrested Jasvir Singh alias Seera, a resident of Bajoana village, Iqbal Singh alias Gagu, Satpal Singh alias Dhala, Gurlal Singh alias Kalu of Kalyan Sukha village and Sukhdeep Singh alias Kala of Kotkapura.

They said their kingpin Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi of Dyalpura and other members Sukhmander Singh of Kalyan Sukha, Krishan Singh, Kuldeep Singh, and Ravi of Barnala were still absconding.

The police claimed that the accused had made a gang of 11 members. They have recovered Rs 2.75 lakh in cash and illegal weapons, including three guns of .12 bore, one rifle, bat, one rifle .12 bore, one rifle .12 bore single barrel, 32 bullets, drill machine, cutter, hammer, one iron rod and two motorcycles.

They also stated that during interrogation, the accused admitted that a few days ago they looted money at gunpoint from Punjab and Sind Bank branch located at Doda village in Faridkot district and in May, they looted Rs 10 lakh, gold and other material from the State Bank of India branch at Sarva Botla village in Muktsar district.

The police said the gang mostly targeted co-operative banks at villages. The banks it had targeted till now are Cooperative Bank, Maluka, Cooperative Bank, Dhade, Cooperative Bank, Harraipur, Cooperative Bank, Ubha, Cooperative Bank, Chauke, Cooperative Bank, Ladhu Wala Utraj in Jalalabad, Cooperative Bank, Jodhpura Cheema in Barnala, Cooperative Bank, Pakka Kalan, Punjab and Sindh Bank, Malout, Cooperative Bank, Bheema Kalan in Mansa, Cooperative Bank, Kalyan Sukha, Cooperative Bank, Muktsar, Punjab and Sind Bank, Doda, State Bank of India, Sarava Botla, Cooperative Bank, Hari No in Faridkot and Cooperative Bank, Maluka (second incident).