Ludhiana gold heist: To zero in on robbers, cops to question 6K Ciaz owners

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana February 18

After four armed persons looted Rs 30 kg of gold worth Rs 12 crore from India Infoline Finance Limited (IIFL) on the Gill road yesterday, the Ludhiana police have started examining owners of 6,000 white Ciaz cars in the state.

Sources said the police had already procured data from the company, according to which, 6,000 white Ciaz cars had been sold to buyers in Punjab since 2014. Since Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta is personally supervising the probe, police officials of all districts have been given the task to verify the owners and question suspects.

“When we showed the footage of the car to experts, we were told that it was a 2014 model. Company officials too said the same thing. We will first question those who bought or had the same make in 2014,” a senior police official said. The sources said a white Ciaz was neither stolen or looted in the past, which indicated that the one used in the crime might belong to one of the robbers.

It was not seen at any of the toll barriers in Punjab and the police suspect that the robbers could be hiding in the state only.

Only one Ciaz car theft case was registered by the Chandigarh police in 2016, but that was against the owner, who had taken it away after being challaned for wrong parking.

On September 19, 2019, six armed men had robbed a gold loan centre of 20-kg gold in Nalasopara, Maharashtra. Another robbery was reported from a gold loan branch of the IIFL in Gujarat on January 9 2020. The Ludhiana police also contacted their Gujarat and Maharashtra counterparts to find out if there was some connection.

ADGP (Internal Security) RN Dhoke and ADGP (Law and Order) Ishwar Singh also visited the spot and reconstructed the scene.

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