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Patiala petrol pump robbery: 20 teams formed, no breakthrough so far
Two men, including a truck driver, were killed by three armed robbers who struck at a petrol pump on the Patiala-Zirakpur highway on June 17.
A day after two persons were killed by three armed robbers during a petrol pump heist in Patiala, at least 20 teams of investigators have been constituted to arrest the accused. Despite having complete CCTV footages of the crime, police is still groping in the dark.
“The involvement of gangsters cannot be ruled out at this stage. The assailants seemed to have carried out a thorough recce of the crime scene before committing the crime,” a cop said.
Additional inspector general (AIG) Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, who is heading the organised crime control unit (OCCU) in the case, visited the spot on Monday, to ascertain the role of gangsters in the incident.
Superintendent of police (SP) Harvinder Singh Virk said at least 20 teams have been constituted to investigate the matter from different angles.
“We have collected the CCTV footage from the crime scene and are looking for more camera footages from nearby places. We have also circulated CCTV images of the accused at all police stations across state for identification,” the SP said.
He added that police sleuths are working on all technical and physical evidence collected from the spot.
On Sunday night, three unidentified men on a Royal Enfield (Bullet) motorcycle held employees of the Guru Nanak filling station at Chamarheri village captive at gunpoint. The assailants had killed Kuldeep Singh, a driver who was refueling his truck, and Davinder Singh of Alampur village. They had also looted the petrol station employees of ₹11,000.
Kuldeep was fired at him from a point blank range with a .32 pistol. The assailants had then asked one of the employees, Laddi, to hand over the money. They had frisked him and found ₹6,000 in his pocket. They had then searched Kuldeep, who was lying in a pool of blood, and taken ₹5,000 from him.
Hearing the gunshots, Davinder Singh, who was sitting at his friend’s dhaba adjacent the petrol pump, had rushed there and tried to nab one of the robbers. The robbers had fired two gunshots at Davinder and attacked him with a sharp-edged weapon.
Unsolved cases
February 19, 2018: A 52-year-old ex-serviceman Darshan Singh was stabbed to death while his wife was critically injured in an alleged attack by robbers at their residence in Samana’s Ghazipur village. Police is yet to arrest the accused.
January, 2018: Patiala police is yet to solve the alleged kidnapping of a toddler by a woman from the Mata Kaushalya Hospital.
November 20, 2017: The police have failed to trace accused in a case where three unidentified motorcycle-borne youth had allegedly looted ₹3 lakh from a local businessman, Dharampal, 65. The incident had taken place around 1km from chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s residence.
