Safe City project: Cops arrest four snatchers in two separate cases

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 3

The Kapurthala police solved two cases of snatching and arrested four criminals and recovered the looted money, Activa and bikes used by them.

At least two of the snatchers are college students, one of them from Delhi University.

The accused have been identified as Amandeep Singh and Karanpreet Singh, residents of Maqsudan, Jalandhar and Harsh and Sandeep Kumar of Khalwara Gate, Phagwara.

At a press conference here, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Kapurthala, Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh said: “On Saturday, two boys chased an Activa-borne Vishnu of Thanesar Kurukshetra on their bike on the highway near Haveli restaurant in Jalandhar and snatched the two-wheeler from him. Vishnu claimed that he had kept Rs2 lakh in the Activa’s cabinet.”

The SSP said as soon as the information was received, the newly launched highway patrol party reached the spot and started tracking the criminals by scanning the CCTV footage from nearby establishments.

He said the police teams tracked down criminals and arrested both Amandeep Singh and Karanpreet Singh and recovered the looted money, the Activa and the bike used to commit the crime, when they tried to escape on spotting the police party. Karanpreet is a student of Sports College, Jalandhar. Police said the duo banged their bike against Vishnu’s scooter after which he fell. They then took his money and the Activa and fled.

The SSP said during preliminary interrogation, the accused revealed that the money was handed over to Vishnu by Kamdeva, who has a grocery store in Qazi Mandi Jalandhar and Kamdeva’s daughter Anjali was Amandeep’s friend. She provided the information to him and they committed the crime, he said.

The SSP said the first clues in the case were taken from CCTVs and different police teams were formed under the supervision of SP Phagwara Sarbjit Singh and DSP Paramjit Singh and sent towards the possible routes, where miscreants fled. That is how the police succeeded in cracking the case. An FIR under Section 379 B (forceful snatching) and 34 of the IPC was registered at the Sadar police station against the duo on June 30.

Similarly, Khakh said, in the second case, two bikers stole a purse from Dr Renu Bala’s Activa, when she returned to her home and went to open the main gate of the house at Mastnagar, Phagwara. SSP Khakh said the police teams identified the thieves from the CCTV footage. Accused Harsh and Sandeep Kumar were nabbed and the stolen purse and the bike used to commit the crime as well as 22 unauthorised injections were recovered from them.

Harsh is a BCom first year student at the Delhi University and Sandeep is a resident of Khalwara Gate. FIRs under Section 379 B of the IPC and 22 of the NDPS Act was lodged against the duo at the Satnampura police station on June 30 and July 2, respectively.

The SSP said police teams would produce the accused before the magistrate and seek their police remand for further investigation.

The SSP said with encouraging results in the Safe City Project, soon this project will also be launched in the remaining subdivisions in the upcoming days.