Bathinda: Former constable held in malkhana arms theft case

Balwant Garg

Bathinda, December 10

A former constable, who was head munshi of a police station, wanted in the theft case of 12 weapons and 1,200 cartridges from its malkhana, was arrested today in a one-year-old case of attempted robbery. He has been identified as Sandeep Singh.

Donning police uniform, he and his four associates had allegedly attempted a robbery on November 19, 2022, at Bhucho village in Bathinda. The robbers were carrying many sophisticated weapons, including an AK-47. At the time of this incident, Sandeep was head munshi at Dayalpura police station in Bathinda.

In the last one year, the police had failed to identify these robbers until the police stumbled upon on information some days back while investigating a criminal case. The arrest of a drug supplier blew the lid off. The police had recovered a pistol from the drug supplier and investigation revealed that it was the case property of the malkhana in Dayalpura police station.

Following this, the Bathinda police recovered three weapons and many cartridges from Sandeep and his associate Sahib Singh.

Already facing five criminal cases, Sandeep was a munshi at Dayalpura in Bathinda till November 27, 2022. He was allegedly stealing fire weapons from the malkhana and supplying these to criminals.

Further investigation found that about 2,000 cartridges, Rs 7 lakh drug money and 12 weapons were missing from the malkhana and the mastermind of these missing properties was Sandeep, alleged the Bathinda police. He had been absconding since that time and in the one about one year, he was booked in four other criminal cases. “We are hopeful of getting information about the criminals who were supplied the stolen fire weapons by Sandeep,” said Ajay Gandhi, SP (Investigation), Bathinda.