Ludhiana: 10 days on, six held for Dugri fuel station gunpoint robbery

LUDHIANA: The police, on Monday, claimed to have solved the June 11 Dugri fuel station gunpoint robbery with the arrest of six.
The arrested are Gurdeep Singh of Shimlapuri, Hardeep Singh of Hoshiarpur, Vijay Kumar of Una, Himachal Pradesh, Himansu Heer of Basti Jodhewal, Satnam Singh and Kulwinder Kumar, both of Jalandhar. Rs 36,000, two pistols, live cartridges, sharp-edged weapons and vehicles used in the crime have been recovered from them.
Joint commissioner of police (rural) Sachin Gupta said, “All the accused have several criminal cases against them. They met at Hoshiarpur jail, where all of them were lodged. After coming out of the jail about a year ago, they formed a gang and started executing crimes.”
Before striking at the fuel station, Gurdeep recced it and informed Kulwinder about it. “Then, Kulwinder, Hardeep and Vijay reached Ludhiana on their two-wheeler. They all met at Gurdeep’s house and made the robbery plan. A day before they struck, Gurdeep took all his accomplices near the fuel station and told them about an escape route. For the robbery, Kulwinder had purchased two weapons for Rs 11,000 and Rs 9,000 from Uttar Pradesh,” he added.
On June 11, they reached the fuel station and asked its employees to refill their bike. Soon, they overpowered and thrashed the employees before fleeing with Rs 81,000.
ADCP-II Jaskiranjit Singh Teja said, “The accused confessed to have executed about 10 crimes, including snatchings and loots, in the past one year, which are untraced. They were planning to rob another fuel station when the police arrested them.”
Kulwinder has seven criminal cases against him, including those of snatching and theft. Himanshu has two cases against him of forgery and theft. Vijay was booked in a rape and a drugs case. Satnam has three cases of drug peddling and murder bid against him. And Hardeep was booked in two cases of drugs and scuffle.
Police said the gang was active in different districts of Punjab.