A petrol pump at Barowala, Patelnagar was looted on Monday night as the miscreants decamped with thousands of rupees in cash — an incident that further exposed that the police brag of ensuring fool-proof security to stop crimes in Dehradun rung hollow. Despite the police claiming to intensify night patrolling and launching vehicle checking drives regularly, the criminals robbed the pump with impunity, said an alarmed local, adding that the cops should do some soul-searching instead of reeling out spurious boast. Vishwanath, a resident of Chamoli and employee of Balaji Petrol Pump, Barowala, registered a complaint, stating that some persons had arrived in a car and brandishing a pistol, they looted thousands of rupees and two mobile phones from him and one of his colleagues Pritam before escaping from the scene.
The incident occurred around11.15 pm and two employees were present during the crime. Vishwanath further said he had thrown stones on the vehicle when robbers were escaping.
One of the windows of the vehicle was smashed. Taking cognisance of this, a case under Section 394 of IPC was registered against unidentified persons in Patelnagar police station. The Patelnagar police station in-charge inspector Pankaj Gairola said that teams had been formed and they were now engaged in nailing the accused. Some suspects were being grilled.
Probe was hitting a roadblock as the petrol pump was not equipped with CCTV cameras. There was no security guard either, he added.
According to Gairola, the Patelnagar police was informed about the incident at Barowala, Shimla bypass, Patelangar from telephone number -100. Information was disseminated and SSP Pushpak Jyoti, SP City Ajay Singh, circle officer Arun Kumar Pandey, an Inspector and Sub-Inspectors rushed. Police recovered a fake firearm from the spot, he added. SSP Jyoti directed the station police officers to launch combing operations to nab the robbers in their jurisdictional areas. However, police were still clueless over whereabouts and identities of the accused. “We have got no lead so far to hit upon, one senior cop said, adding that the persons being questioned now might provide the lead to crack the crime.
