Employee among 3 arrested for robbery at Hoshiarpur gold firm

Employee of gold testing lab arrested for robbing own workplace with accomplices in Hoshiapur. Cash, gold, silver seized. Owner was away. Case under investigation.

An employee of a gold testing laboratory, which was targeted by robbers a day before, has been arrested for his involvement in the crime, the police said on Monday. ₹22.5 lakh, 800-gm gold and 2.5-kg silver, which the robbers had taken away from the premises of Sri Nath Tunch lab in Hoshiapur’s Sarafa Bazaar, have been seized. All of them have been nabbed.

SSP Surendra Lamba addresses mediapersons in Hoshiarpur on Monday. (Harpreet Kaur/HT photo)

The police had received a complaint that the robbers, while committing the crime, had tied the firm’s employee, Yogesh Yadav, and also taken away his mobile before fleeing. The owner of the lab was away in his home town in Maharashtra. Yadav too hails from Maharashtra.

Since Yadav’s body did not show any struggle mark and the material used to tie him was also taken from the lab, the police got suspicious. Tracing his phone calls and joining the loose ends of the story, the investigating team concluded that the robbery was plotted by Yadav.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Surendra Lamba said, “During interrogation, Yadav confessed and revealed the names of his accomplices. His friend Krishna Kapoor and latter’s father Sandeep Kapoor, residents of Karnal in Haryana, had made away with cash and the precious metal which they were to share with him later.”

A police team was immediately sent to Karnal which, with assistance from the local police, recovered the cash, gold and silver from both. After the robbery, it was claimed that the accused took away ₹23 lakh besides 1 kg of gold and 7-kg silver. It is under investigation.

The SSP informed that a case under Sections 392 (robbery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) was registered against the accused in the city police station and further investigation initiated.

The owner of the firm, which deals in purification of gold and silver, was expected to arrive shortly, he said, adding that the accused employee had a monetary dispute with his employer so he wanted to settle the score with him.