Ludhiana heist : Mastermind woman, husband went on pilgrimage to Hemkund Sahib after robbery; arrested on way back

Addressing the media, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that the gang members who executed the heist had vowed to go on pilgrimage to different religious places such as Haridwar, Hemkund Sahib and Kedarnath “after successful execution of the robbery”.

“Main co-conspirator Mandeep Kaur alias Mona, 29, a woman from Dehlon of Ludhiana, who was married to Jaswinder Singh of Barnala, had planned the entire robbery with her friend Manjinder Singh alias Mani, 27, an employee of the company who was arrested earlier. After the execution of the crime, the couple – Mandeep and Jaswinder – went to Hemkund Sahib in Uttarakhand and paid obeisance at the gurdwara on Friday. According to their statement, they also offered an apology at the gurdwara. They had completed the pilgrimage when our team arrested them on their way back,” said CP Sidhu.

Sidhu said that another tranche of Rs 21 lakh has been recovered from the couple taking the total recovery of the looted sum to Rs 5.96 crore.

“We have recovered Rs 12 lakh which was hidden in Kaur’s two-wheeler, while Rs 9 lakh was recovered from her husband Jaswinder’s house in Barnala, taking the total recovery in the case to Rs 5.96 crore,” said CP Sidhu.

The officer further said that another accused Gaurav alias Gulshan of Barnala, has been arrested from Gidderbaha of Muktsar who during his questioning admitted that one Gopa had come to his house in Barnala on the day of the robbery in Cruz vehicle and then he along with him went to Ludhiana bus stand to pick up two other accused – Arun and Nanni – and after the robbery was executed they again dropped all of them back to Barnala with the looted cash.

CP Sidhu said that Gopa has also been nominated as accused in the case taking the total number to 12, of which nine have been arrested and three – Arun, Nanni and Gopa – are yet to be arrested.

Sidhu said that a team led by Inspector Beant Juneja and Inspector Kulwant Singh worked 24×7, travelled throughout the night to Uttarakhand to arrest Mandeep Kaur and Jaswinder Singh who were on their way back after completing pilgrimage to Hemkund Sahib.

“They also got yatra completion documents which are in our possession. They clicked pictures there when it was drizzling and they were wearing overcoats,” Sidhu said, adding that the two were not using phones. “We tracked them using human intelligence and with the help of inputs from our counter-intelligence wing,” said Sidhu.

He said that Mandeep Kaur got her second marriage solemnised with Jaswinder in February this year. “Her first marriage was in 2018 which ended in divorce,” he said.

“Earlier, the couple’s family had hinted that they had fled to Nepal, so we got LOCs (look out circulars) issued but probably it was an attempt to mislead police probe,” he added.

The CP further said that he would write to the government recommending that all expenditure incurred by the police in solving the case should be recovered from the company (CMS). “It is due to their poor security arrangements, glaring lapses and extreme negligence that this incident happened. I would be recommending that the entire expenditure incurred in the case by the police should be recovered from them. They have also wasted the police’s precious time,” he said.

On Friday, Ludhiana police had launched Operation ‘Let’s Cage the Queen Bee’ to catch Kaur, the mastermind behind the heist carried out at CMS office in the city’s Rajguru Nagar on June 10. “We did not name the Operation after Queen Bee to glorify the accused woman as some hero. It was done to signify that she was ‘luttan di raani’ (queen of dacoities),” said Sidhu, giving a clarification during the press conference.

Earlier, police had managed to arrest six of the accused in the case and Rs 5.75 crore was recovered from them. Among the heaviest recoveries, police had recovered Rs 1.50 crore from Manjinder Singh, while another Rs 2.25 crore was recovered from the couple’s Cruz vehicle which was used in the crime.

Sidhu added that the company continues to stand by its earlier figure claiming loot of Rs 8.49 crore after re-checking its records.