In a major breakthrough, Kapurthala district police on Thursday nabbed four persons allegedly part of the nine-member gang that robbed and injured 16 members of two families on the intervening night of May 12 and 13 in Kamalpur and Mothanwa villages. The mother of one of the accused was also arrested on the charges of sheltering the accused.
Kapurthala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Inderbir Singh said that the accused had been arrested during a special search operation launched in the roadside jhuggis (temporary shelters).
“A police party led by Sultanpur lodhi SHO was carrying out a search of jhuggis outside the RCF, when four people, including the woman, tried to flee.
They were nabbed. Two passbooks and two identity cards belonging to the victims' families were recovered from their dwelling,” he said.
On interrogation, they confirmed their involvement in the Kapurthala robbery and another robbery held under Zira police station of Ferozepur district on Tuesday. The accused, Munim, Ashiq, Raju alias Usman alias Pappu and Zareena, alias Dilshana, mother of Usma, all are residents of Dhariwal, Gurdaspur.
He claimed that investigation had revealed that the accused were residents of Uttar Pradesh. The woman Zareena had only been sheltering and feeding the accused.
On the modus operandi, the SSP said: “The gang did not use weapons. On their way to a target house, they broke heavy tree branches to hit heads of their victims. On the information provided by the three, we have identified the spots where they used to gather before committing a dacoity.”
They commit robberies on 10 days of the month when there was no moon, he added.
Further, he revealed that all nine gang members were below 25 years in age and used to walk nearly 10 km in an hour after the crime to reach their dwellings.
Before and after the crime, they used to gather, pray and distribute sweets at a pre-defined common place. They performed as street-jugglers and roadside magicians.
“I have asked officials to identify people with such profile. All SHOs are being directed to make a list of such people, especially of those living under temporary shelters,” said the SSP.
He said that the police cracked this case, as vital clues were collected from some of the spots where the gang met that night.
The culprits have also disclosed the names of their six accomplices as Khusneed, lukman alias Chharu, Kulwinder alias Gurdeep, Ila, Aaftab and Raju alias Vijay.
SSP said that Police parties have already been dispatched to nab the remaining culprits, and expressed confidence that during further interrogation, there would be more revelations as they seemed to be habitual criminals.
It may be mentioned that an FIR no 104 dated May 13, 2013, was registered in Police station Sultanpur lodhi.