LUDHIANA: In the third such incident in four days, miscreants posing as cops looted a trader, who came to the city for purchasing hosiery, in Mochpura Bazaar on Tuesday morning. The accused robbed him of Rs 57,000 on the pretext of frisking him.
The police have identified the accused and lodged an FIR against them under Section 379-B (snatching) of the IPC. According to the police, the accused are from the same gang that recently executed two snatchings in the city using the same modus operandi.
The victim, Rajesh Kumar of Seetamarhi,
Bihar, told the police that he came to Ludhiana on Monday evening. He stayed the night in a hotel in the old city and on Tuesday morning went for purchasing hosiery. When he reached a shop around 10.30am, a man came to him and asked him to come out.
“When I came out, another man introduced himself as a cop and asked me to keep my cash aside as they wanted to frisk me. As soon as I took out the cash, they snatched it and escaped on their motorcycle,” said Kumar.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP-Central) Waryam Singh said, “They are not the same accused, but are from the same gang. The police will arrest them soon.”
The hosiery business season is on peak for which traders from different states come to the city to make purchases.
In two such incidents reported on the morning of September 29, four miscreants on two bikes robbed two hosiery traders of Rs 5.3 lakh in a span of 15 minutes. The first incident took place at 10.45am near
Lakkar Bazaar. Jasraj, 40, of
Chhattisgarh came to the city on September 29 morning and reached a hotel near Subhani Building. Jasraj told the police that he was planning to get an accommodation before visiting the market to make purchases.
When Jasraj was walking from Lakkar Bazaar towards Subhani Building, four men stopped him and introduced themselves as cops. He told the police, “They said due to festival season, police were holding special checks. They frisked my bag and returned it to me. Another man frisked me and took Rs 1.5 lakh cash. The third miscreant involved me in a conversation and the other two escaped with the cash. Within seconds, rest of them also fled.”
Fifteen minutes later in Madhopuri, the accused targeted another hosiery trader of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Sarvan Aggarwal, 47, had come to the city on September 28 evening and checked into a Madhopuri hotel. On the morning of September 30, he left for the main market in Madhopuri for purchasing hosiery.
Aggarwal was walking in the market when around 11am, the same men posing as cops stopped him on the pretext of checking. Two of them checked his bag containing Rs 3.8 lakh, meanwhile the other two busied him in a conversation. They soon fled with the trader’s money, the police said.
The ACP said the
snatchers were members of an inter-state gang, which was active in Maharashtra and
Gujarat, too.
Representative image
