Gang involved in liquor vend burglaries busted

Gurdaspur, March 18

The Gurdaspur police on Monday busted a gang which used to loot liquor vends at night, with the arrest of five persons.

In the last few months, 11 vends were burgled in the district. These crates subsequently made their way into the old city, where these were sold at nominal rates.

SSP Swarandeep Singh headed the team that cracked the case. It included senior officers and SHOs of the district.

When the first three shops were ransacked, the police thought these were “routine” thefts. However, after eight more vends were burgled, the police started serious investigations. Acting on a tip-off, the SSP decided to plant one of his own men in the gang.

Finally, the police cracked the case hours before the gang was to loot another shop in Puranashala on Monday.

“The gang members did not leave behind many trails. After each robbery, they left the cash untouched. They did this to confuse the police. In one such robbery, the accused deliberately dropped some bottles on a particular road to misguide the police while they took another route to escape. They did this with such diligence that officers remained confused for quite some time over the route taken by the gang. Finally, we zeroed in on them this morning and arrested five of them. Two of the accused are still at large,” said the SSP. A case has been registered. — TNS