LUDHIANA: The police on Wednesday claimed to have cracked 100 snatchings and robberies with the arrest of seven notorious accused infamous by the name of donkey gang. The accused used to rob people by threatening them with pistols and sharp-edged weapons. The donkey gang was more active in areas around Bahadur Ke Road, Jassian Road, Grain Market, Shimlapuri, Gill Road and Moti Nagar.
The arrested have been identified as Lovedeep Singh Deepu of Jhabewal Road, Bhamia, Gagandeep Singh of Faridkot, Deepak Kumar of Shimlapuri, Kulwinder Singh of Gaunsgarh, Amanjot Singh of Bulara, Shiv Kumar of Bhamia Kalan and Vikram Singh of Jamalpur. Division 3 police nabbed them from Transport Nagar following a tip-off.
The police have recovered a 7.65 bore pistol with four live cartridges, one dummy pistol, one airgun, four sharp-edged weapons, six motorcycles, one scooter, one internet dongle and seven mobiles from their possession.
Commissioner of police Rakesh Agarwal said it was a notorious gang of robbers active in the city for long. The accused confessed to have executed approximately 100 snatchings, loots and robberies from June till now. They do not have specific targets, they snatch mobiles from migrant labourers and execute robberies at gunpoint.
“Lovedeep is the gang leader. All the gang members have nearly 28 criminal cases against them, including those of robberies, snatchings, thefts, attempt to murder and some under the Arms Act. The accused are drug addicts and were arrested earlier, too, but came out on bail and again started executing crimes,” added Agarwal.
Assistant commissioner of police (central) Waryam Singh said the gang was active in different areas of the city. “At night, they used to threaten factory workers at gun or knifepoint and snatch their mobiles and cash. Some of the robberies were executed in daytime too. On October 9, they had robbed a sports bike worth Rs 1.5 lakh at gunpoint from the employee of a realtor in Salem Tabri. On October 6, they had attempted to rob the office of a moneychanger in Kashmir Nagar at gunpoint,” he said.
The ACP added that the police were questioning the accused to know from where they purchased the weapons.