Punjab: Cops crack over 14 crimes as they dig deep into Nabha bank robbery

PATIALA: The police investigators probing crimes committed by the gang involved in the Rs 50-lakh robbery at SBI’s Nabha Branch have dug out details of at least 14 robberies that the gang committed in the last 12 years during which they killed six persons and rendered seven others bedridden for life.


The cops had arrested Jagdev Singh alias Taari, 35, and Amanjit Singh alias Guri, 37 after the November 14 Nabha Bank robbery. Their interrogation in police custody led to the arrests of three of their accomplices identified as Gurmail Singh, 43, of village Raseen in Ludhiana district; Major Singh, 43, of village Kanjhla in Sangrur district; and Gurmail Singh, 55, alias Gela of Ghanauri Kalan village of Sangrur district.

Further probe revealed that the gang committed their first armed robbery in 2006 and to elide the police radar all these years, but when the cops cracked the Nabha robbery, within four hours of the crime, sordid details of other crimes committed by the gang started to tumble out.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police MS Sidhu said the gang that started as robbers evolved into a gang of killers who would first open fire at their victims and then loot cash from them. “They shot 13 persons in 14 robberies that they committed in the last twelve years. Out of these six were killed, while others are bedridden till date,” he said.

During the nine-day interrogations of the accused, the gang members confessed to the 2008 triple murder case at a gas agency in Cheema town of Sunam segment in Sangrur district. The police also recovered huge cache of arms allegedly snatched by the robbers in the past. While the cops had earlier recovered .32 bore illegal pistol and gun from their possession, the police also recovered four .12 bore rifles, two .32 revolvers and .315 bore rifle following the arrest of the other three accused.

Incharge Crime briefs from Patiala and Ambala Investigating Agency (CIA) Inspector Shiminder Singh said Amanjit Singh, who is the son of now-retired Punjab police sub-inspector, had formed the gang and masterminded all the robberies. He had used his father’s service revolver (.38 bore) in the first crime in which they had looted Rs 3 lakh in Kanhjla village in 2006. The Patiala police have already written to the Sangrur police in this regard. Whenever his father would lay suspicion on him, he would threaten to commit suicide, the cops said.

Elaborating about the modus operandi the SSP said the accused would dress differently in every robbery which helped them to conceal their identities and elude arrests. They would plan their crimes in such a way that no evidence was left behind after committing the robbery.