GURDASPUR, April 23: Police today claimed to have busted a gang of dacoits by arresting its five members from whom they claim to have recovered five pistols alongwith 18 cartridges, besides two trucks snatched by them.Stating this at a press conference here, border range Inspector General J P Birdi said one of the trucks was snatched by the gangsters after killing its driver and cleaner about two months ago. The second truck recovered from them belonged to Indore-based Harbhajan Singh alias Bucha of Ali village in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. This second truck was allegedly taken away by Harbhajan Singh's relative Jaswant Singh alias Billa, one of the five accused, and was also used by him alongwith his four accomplices in misappropriating goods worth Rs ten lakh, the police officer added.Birdi identified the remaining four accused as Dalwinder Singh alias Binda, Gurmeet Singh, Jagbir Singh alias Jagga and Jaswant Singh alias Jassa, all residents of villages in Amritsar district. Billa, too, hails from an Amritsar village, he added.All the five accused arrested by Narot Jaimal Singh police during a raid at a grove of trees near Dhussi bund at village Gugran yesterday were produced in a Pathankot court today which remanded them to police custody for further interrogation.The accused, who worked as truck drivers and cleaners in Indore, `confessed' that they had assembled to chalk out a plan to commit dacoities when the police caught them.The police officer said the accused after having got possession of Harbhajan Singh's truck, set out on the Indore-Mumbai national highway, two months ago, looking for a catch. It was then that they came across another truck loaded with broken glass. Birdi said after allegedly strangulating its driver and cleaner and disposing off their bodies on the way, they dumped the cargo of broken glass near Nanded and returned to Punjab to escape arrest by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh police. They were to start operating afresh but were caught on a tipoff, Birdi added.
