Lawyer convicted of bank robbery in Mohali

Manjinder, who owed money to several people, had robbed ₹7.6-lakh from an unguarded branch of SBI

The local court on Wednesday convicted advocate Manjinder Singh, 32, a district court lawyer, for armed robbery at a bank in Mohali.

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The incident had taken place on July 2017. Manjinder, who owed money to several people, had robbed ₹7.6-lakh from an unguarded branch of the State Bank of India in Mohali for easy money. The absence of a guard and security alarms had made the crime a cakewalk for him.

What did him in was the false complaint of vehicle theft he made to the police control room soon after the broad daylight robbery at the Industrial Area, Phase 7.

At the time of the incident, there were only five staffers in the bank. Pointing a pistol at the cashier, he made him put money in a bag, and then rushed out of the bank towards a Volkswagen Jetta car parked a few metres away. As two bank employees chased him and tried to stop the car, the vehicle’s bumper fell off along with a part of the registration number plate. Half an hour later due to nakas put up at various places, Manjinder had abandoned his car on the rear of North Country Mall and left for his house in Sunny Enclave, said police. A patrol team found the abandoned car and got suspicious.

He was booked under Section 382 (theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Arms Act. The quantum of sentence will be produced on September 27.

Manjinder Singh, who studied at Post Graduate Government College, Sector 11, before completing postgraduation from the law department at Panjab University in 2013, was staying in a rented accommodation at Sunny Enclave in Mohali at the time of the incident. He was arrested from his house.