Highway robbers: Charges framed against four

A local court,on Tuesday,framed charges against four members of an inter-state highway robbers’ gang,who were arrested by the Chandigarh Police in June last year. The four accused —Jai Pal Sigh,a resident of Ferozepur,Harinder Singh,son of a Chandigarh Police official,Gurshahid Singh Pawar of Ferozepur,and Harjot Singh from Ludhiana – were apprehended on June 30,2009,with arms and cash while on their way to Chandigarh from Ludhiana. The police had recovered four revolvers,25 live cartridges,a Maruti Swift car and Rs 4.64 lakh cash from the four.

They had reportedly looted a shop in Ludhiana and were headed to Chandigarh when the UT police caught them. A police team,comprising commandos and members of Special Crime Investigation cell,had intercepted the car bearing a Punjab registration number at a check-post in Sector 42,and the registration number was later found to be fake. The police claimed that during investigation,the the accused had admitted to various robberies on national highways,banks and jewellery shops,apart from carjacking and cases of kidnapping. They were also allegedly involved in the robbery at a gun house in Hoshiarpur earlier last year. Another three members of the gang were arrested by the Haryana Police with a huge cache of weapons before the four fell into police net.