Car spare parts thief ends up stealing AK-56 in Batala

Ravi Dhaliwal

Batala, December 19

A man who entered a service station with the intention of stealing a few car accessories enough to cover for his evening pint of liquor actually ended up lifting an AK-56.

SSP Satinder Singh said a few days ago, Pawan Kumar, who has half-dozen cases of theft registered against him at Batala and Gurdaspur police districts, scaled a wall and entered the service station on the Qadian road at night. Once there, Pawan got hold of a “mass of iron” which he thought he would sell and buy liquor. However, when he reached his house, Pawan found he had actually stolen an assault rifle.

“He became nervous and hid the rifle at a place near Bank Colony. Today, we arrested him in a case of theft he had committed earlier. During the investigation, he disclosed about the rifle,” said the SSP.

An officer said the repercussions could have been serious had the rifle made its way into wrong hands. “Pawan, however, kept it a secret and did not discuss the theft with anybody else. It is our luck that we arrested him and during questioning he disclosed his ‘find’ to us. Had he sold it to gangsters or anti-social elements, things could have definitely turned ugly. The rifle is in a workable condition,” he said.

The SSP said the AK-56 was kept at the service station by a dismissed inspector, Narang Singh. “Narang Singh is a friend of Deep Raj Singh, the proprietor of the service station, whom we have arrested,” he said.

“At present, Narang is lodged in a Hoshiarpur jail. We will bring him back to Batala on a production warrant to unravel the mystery. Only then will we know how and when Narang got hold of the rifle,” he said.