Carjacking, kidnapping and robbery: Yodha took to crime to fund drug addiction

Yodha, who belongs to Bheopur village of tehsil Shahkot in Jalandhar, took to petty crimes first, selling small quantities of drugs to clients, to help out his father.

Yodha Singh alias Jodha, 24, involved in a series of crimes, including carjacking, kidnapping and robbery, and who escaped from police custody on January 6 this year, is a Class-8 dropout who took to petty crimes to fund his addiction to drugs.

“He got hooked to crime for drugs, but later the easy money and connections with gangsters helped him graduate to heinous crimes,” a senior police official, who did not wish to be named, said. (Representative image)

His family seems to have influenced him as his father was a drug peddler and his brother-in-law and cousins were also reported to be carjackers. His sisters are known to provide him shelter when he goes into hiding after committing crimes, police say.

Yodha, who belongs to Bheopur village of tehsil Shahkot in Jalandhar, took to petty crimes first, selling small quantities of drugs to clients, to help out his father. The lure of easy money and influence of other gangsters in prison saw him take to bigger crimes, including car theft, burglary and kidnapping.

All within a month

December 11, 2017: Yodha and his cousin Lovepreet carjacked a Maruti Suzuki Ritz at gunpoint near Kaimbwala 

December 17: Yodha and his gang robbed a car near Sector 46, Chandigarh 

December 24: Yodha and his gang kidnapped Jai Ram and Sanjeev Kumar and dumped them after robbing them of Rs 25,000 

January 5, 2018: Yodha kidnapped and robbed Raghwander Kumar and Rakam Singh.

“He got hooked to crime for drugs, but later the easy money and connections with gangsters helped him graduate to heinous crimes,” a senior police official, who did not wish to be named, said.

Yodha was in Kapurthala jail when he came in contact with Jasbir Singh Seera, a gangster from Punjab, and started car thefts after coming out on bail. His cousin Lovepreet Singh alias Happy, 20, who was also involved in carjackings, managed to procure a pistol that the duo used for committing crimes.

During his interrogation after his arrest on January 6 for a series of crimes in December last year, Yodha told police that the Innova Crysta that he and his accomplices had stolen at gunpoint on December 17 from the Sector 33-45 light point, had been handed over to a gangster in Punjab.

Police authorities believe Yodha fled from the custody of Chandigarh Police at Khanna on February 8 this year, as he was afraid he would end up spending his life in prison. He was being brought back to Chandigarh from a court hearing in Faridkot, and escaped from custody after requesting cops to stop their vehicle at a petrol station, saying he wanted to relieve himself.

Inspector Amanjot Singh, in-charge, crime branch, said, “Yodha used to stay with his sister in Kansal. Even his brother-in-law Amrik is involved in recent incidents of carjacking and is at large.”

Police say Yodha does not trust anyone and prefers to work with his family members, including his cousins and brother-in-law. His two sisters, one at Bheopur and another at Kansal, from where he was arrested on January 8 by the crime branch, provide him shelter after he commits a crime.

Apart from six cases registered in the city, Yodha is booked for drug peddling in several cases in Punjab. He has also been named as an accused in an armed robbery in Sadak in Faridkot district in Punjab where he had robbed Rs 60,000 from a scooterist.

Many cases have gone unreported

The police say the accused also used to pose as taxi drivers and passengers, luring their victims into their vehicle by offering rides at the Interstate Bus Terminus at Sector 43, and later robbing them. One such victim was a Ludhiana resident who was robbed of Rs 40,000. Many such cases have gone unreported in Chandigarh.