Sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF) arrested three youths and claimed to have worked out sensational loot at busy lucknow-Kanpur highway, in which about half a dozen unidentified miscreants shot driver of a courier van and also critically injured the security guard before looting over 7 kilograms of gold worth crores of rupees on the night of August 28 last.
The team members recovered 616 grams of gold besides three mobile phones and a Bolero used in the crime. They said that eight persons were involved in the crime and efforts were on to nab five more.
SSP (STF) Amit Pathak claimed here that through surveillance, they located the movement of some criminals involved in loot of gold at Unnao, on Banthara-Mohanlalganj by-pass on Wednesday afternoon after which they laid a trap and arrested three criminals and recovered the looted booty. They said that the held accused revealed their identity as Amit Singh, Jeewan Kumar, and Madhukar Pandey. On interrogation, it was revealed that one Anil Patel aka Pintu had hatched the conspiracy and had taken the services of above held criminals along with four others including driver of the Bolero. They claimed that on the fateful day, the miscreants who were on Bolero and a motorcycle, intercepted the security van and looted the booty after gunning down the driver and critically injuring others.
It may be mentioned that a Maruti Van (UP32EN-4233), owned by Sequel logistic Private limited, was on its way to lucknow from Kanpur to supply couriers which included a consignment of 7.19 Kg of gold biscuits. As the van was crossing FI Medical and Research Centre in Bajhera hamlet of Sohramau, just on the border of state capital, a white colour Bolero, occupied by half a dozen miscreants suddenly overtook and intercepted the Van late in the night of August 28 last. Before the driver Harichand Yadav (30) could sense foul play, one of the miscreants opened fire and killed him. They also shot at the security guard, Ram Bachan Pandey, having a license gun, after he tried to offer some resistance. The miscreants later looted gold biscuits and jewellery along with other items and fled from the scene of crime. One another occupant in the Van, identified as Sunil Mishra, a resident of Bargawa in Krishnanagar at lucknow, somehow managed to save his life. He rushed out of the van to inform the police.
later the driver and the guard were rushed to the Nawabganj community health centre where the driver was declared `brought dead’ and the guard was referred to Trauma centre at lucknow where he was still battling for his life. A FIR has been filed on the complaint of the courier company official Anoop Shukla, a native of Shuklaganj at Gangaghat in Unnao. He claimed that besides gold, one mobile phone and three ATM cards were also looted by the miscreants.