Ludhiana: Police set up ‘chabeel’ counter to nab mastermind, her husband
Investigators trekked 18 km from Govind Ghat to Hemkund Sahib to arrest the accused and her husband after receiving a tip-off that the duo were planning to flee to Nepal after completing a pilgrimage in Uttarakhand
{ ₹8.49 crore robbery}
Teams probing the ₹8.49 crore robbery put in place an elaborate plan to nab the mastermind, Mandeep Kaur alias Mona, who was referred to as the “Queen Bee” in the operation.
Investigators trekked 18 km from Govind Ghat to Hemkund Sahib to arrest the accused and her husband after receiving a tip-off that the duo were planning to flee to Nepal after completing a pilgrimage in Uttarakhand.
According to the officials, they had inputs of Mandeep Kaur alias Mona and her husband Jaswinder Singh being spotted on their way to pay obeisance at Hemkund Sahib. Instead of chasing after the lead, teams exhibited patience and waited for the duo to resurface.
Crime Investigation Agency (staff-2) in-charge inspector Beant Juneja, who led the operation “Cage the Queen Bee’, said since the religious site attracts a lot of pilgrims, there was a chance of the duo taking advantage of the same and escaping.
Police set up a “chhabeel” of packed juices and glucose for the pilgrims to nab the accused, who stopped at the stop to accept the juices and removed their masks — following which they were identified and arrested.
Sharing further details about the operation, the inspector said they received inputs regarding the duo’s location from a source. After reaching Uttarakhand, investigators found that the accused had registered them with the authorities for the pilgrimage.
Based on the information provided by the accused, police recovered another ₹21 lakh.
During questioning, the accused also told police that they had vowed to go for pilgrimage after successfully executing the robbery. They were not using mobile phones to avoid the police, but had contacted their parents after borrowing a mobile phone from a pilgrim.
The couple knew that some of their aides, including Manjinder Singh, had been arrested earlier.
Ludhiana police had constituted a five-member special investigation team led by joint commissioner of police (JCP) Saumya Mishra to conduct a probe into the incident.
Notably, the commissioner of police had earlier said the probe officials suspect that the actual robbed amount was ₹6.33crore.
In the biggest heist witnessed in the city in the recent past, armed robbers had decamped with the money and a cash van from the office of a CMS, the cash management services company, after holding five employees, including two security guards, captive in the New Rajguru Nagar during the wee hours last Saturday.