Bathinda: Elderly couple robbed of ₹1 lakh, forced to sign cheque for ₹5L

Bathinda police said the accused reached Model Town in an SUV in the guise of pest control executives and demanded ₹10 lakh from the victims

An elderly couple was allegedly robbed of ₹1 lakh and forced to sign a cheque for ₹5 lakh on Tuesday by three unidentified armed men at Bathinda’s Model Town Phase 2, officials said.

As per the information, the cheque was not submitted to the bank for cash withdrawal, said Bathinda police (Representational image)

Police said the accused reached Model Town in an SUV in the guise of pest control executives and demanded ₹10 lakh from the victims.

While the accused were carrying sharp-edged weapons, the victims were not harmed. Civil lines station-house officer (SHO) Ravinder Singh said the victims, Nirmal Verma and Nirmal Kanta, live alone in Bathinda and their son is in New Delhi.

“The couple was home alone when the robbers entered. As per the victims, they had around ₹1 lakh at home, which the accused took. They forced them to write a cheque for ₹5 lakh. As per the information, the cheque was not submitted to the bank for cash withdrawal,” said the SHO.

Investigators said the footage from closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras has been procured and efforts are on to identify the accused.

“Our teams are working on leads gathered from digital and human intelligence,” said superintendent of police (SP investigation) Narinder Singh.