Ludhiana: 3 loot jewellery shop on gunpoint; police suspect owner's claim

LUDHIANA: Three miscreants looted a jewellery shop at gun point on Gill Road on Wednesday afternoon. The shop is half-a-kilometre from Gill Road branch of IIFL Gold Loan office, from where 30kg gold was robbed over two weeks ago.
Davinder Singh, 47, the shop owner, said in his police complaint, “A bike with three riders pulled over outside my shop around 1.40pm. While the helmeted driver waited outside, the two others, who were masked and wearing turbans, barged in. One of them was armed with a pistol and the other with a sharp-edged weapon. They asked me to hand over to them all gold jewellery. When I refused, one of them took locker keys from me at gunpoint. From the locker, the duo filled gold in two bags and escaped. Most of the loot comprised mortgaged gold.”
Davinder was alone at the shop at the time. “I was too scared to call anyone. After sometime, I went to my relatives’ house in Kotmangal Singh who called up my brother and apprised him of the incident.”
Davinder’s brother then took him to additional deputy commissioner of police-II Jaskiranjit Singh Teja’s office around 4pm.
Police, however, suspect the robbery claims.
Deputy commissioner of police (detective) SPS Dhindsa said, “The case is doubtful. CCTVs installed at neighbouring shops have not captured the robbers. Though it is a busy area, nobody saw anything. The neighbours came to know about the incident when police reached there. While checking the shop accounts, we did not find any details of customers. Even Davinder, who is under treatment for depression, could not tell names or contacts of any of his customers. When we approached his accountant, he said he had left the job six months ago as there was no work at shop. Besides, during investigation, we found some gold chains and silver jewellery at the shop. If robbers had struck there, they would have taken everything.”
Division 6 police station SHO inspector Amarjit Singh said, “CCTVs are installed in the shop, but those are non-functional.”
Davinder said the robbers took along his cellphone while escaping. “It is now switched off,” he added.