Petrol money again target on Monday

In a span of one-and-a-half hours yesterday, petrol pump employees carrying large amounts of cash, in different parts of the city, were targeted by motorcycle-borne robbers. HT Correspondent reports.

Petrol Pump owners are proving easy prey for robbers on Mondays.

HT Image

In a span of one-and-a-half hours yesterday, petrol pump employees carrying large amounts of cash, in different parts of the city, were targeted by motorcycle-borne robbers.

In one case, the caretaker of a petrol pump was killed in Bhajanpura in Northeast Delhi. In the other case, though, employees of a pump in South Extension Part-I managed to foil the robbery bid.

Murder in Bhajanpura

Around 10 am, as was his routine, manager Baldev Singh started for the Syndicate Bank branch to deposit his petrol pump’s weekend earnings.

He was reportedly carrying cash amounting to Rs 8.45 lakh. The bank branch lay just across the road inside the Yamuna Vihar bus depot, in C-block community centre.

“When Singh reached the middle of the road, one robber shot him in the chest and snatched the bag from his hands. Singh was accompanied by an employee, Rakesh. He was not able to do anything as the robbers threatened him,” said a senior police officer not authorised to speak to the media.

Singh died on the spot.

Police said the robber’s two accomplices were waiting for him nearby on a Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle, and all three managed to escape from the spot, after firing in the air.

Singh came to Delhi from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and had worked at the Bharat Petroleum pump for the last 10 years. He is survived by two daughters and a son.

Police officers said they suspected an insider’s hand and were questioning the pump’s supervisor, Shailendra Singh, and the owner of the petrol pump, Paramjeet Kaur Gulati, in connection with the case.

Attempt in South Ex-I

Two alert senior citizen employees of a petrol pump successfully foiled a robbery bid in the posh South Extension area on Monday, even as they received bullet and stab injuries.

Both victims are manager-level staffers of a Bharat Petroleum pump and were on their way to deposit Rs 10 lakh at a State Bank of India branch barely 50 metres away.

Manager Baldev Singh (72) was shot at but cash manager SK Bajaj (65) managed to save the briefcase containing the cash and pass it inside the bank (see infographic above).

Similarities

“The assailants first shot at the victims then snatched the bags. They knew the area well and also when to strike,” said a police officer. The attacks were well planned, and were committed within a matter of minutes. In Bhajanpura, robbers took exactly seven minutes to commit the crime.