Armed robbers loot Nurpur water scheme’s machinery

Our Correspondent

Nurpur, April 10

A gang of armed robbers looted motors, pump operating system and electrical wires at gunpoint from the main Chakki water supply scheme here by taking the pump operator hostage.

Raman Kumar, an outsourced employee (pump operator) of the Jal Shakti Department, was on night duty at the pump house of the water supply scheme when eight masked men broke open the door of the station at 10.30 pm on Thursday and assaulted him with a baseball. The robbers armed with two country-made pistols and a sharp-edged weapon threatened to kill him if he raised the alarm.

In his statement to the police, Raman Kumar said the robbers seemed to be Himachalis, as they were conversing with each

other in the Pahari dialect. They forcefully entered the pump house, snatched his mobile phone and the keys of his car and looted the pump house machinery, he alleged.

He said that the robbers loaded the looted machinery on two vehicles and fled. Later, he untied himself somehow and found his mobile phone and car keys outside the pump house. He informed department officials about the incident.

Kangra SP Vimukat Ranjan told The Tribune that a special investigation team (SIT) led by the SDPO, Nurpur, had been constituted to probe into the incident. He added that a robbery case had been registered.

Amit Dogra, Executive Engineer, Jal Shakti Department, Nurpur division, said that the robbers took away the whole machinery, including electrical components, of the water supply scheme, thereby causing a loss of Rs 18 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. He added that efforts were being made to ensure a temporary standby arrangement to restore the scheme so that urban area residents could get piped water supply soon.

Robbers had recently looted the machinery of two water supply schemes in the Nadaun area of Hamirpur district by taking the pump house employee hostage.

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