Four are apprehended by Amritsar Rural Police for dacoity at the home of the grocery shop owner

The Amritsar Rural Police said on Wednesday that they had solved the dacoity case, in which a grocery shop owner and his wife were taken hostage in their home by criminals who stole gold jewelry valued at millions of rupees along with Rs 15 lakh in cash. The police had arrested four people in this case.

Ashok Kumar of New Jawahar Nagar, Batala Road, Pawan Sharma of Ajnala, Gurpreet Singh, also known as Gopi, of Rajasansi, and Naresh Kumar of Amar Avenue in the city’s Court Road area were the names of those who were taken into custody. In their hands, the police also found a toy gun used in the crime and retrieved Rs 11.70 lakh.

According to Superintendent of Police (Investigations) Harinder Singh Gill, the accused appeared before a judge, who placed them under detention for a period of five days. According to initial inquiries, he added, a resident of Ajnala gave information to the accused regarding large sums of money and jewelry found in the home of the victim, Surinder Pal Sehgal, who operates a grocery shop in the border village of Ajanala. He said that attempts were being made to locate and apprehend him.

In the first complaint, Surinderpal Sehgal had said that the armed accused had fled the residence with valuables valued at Rs 25 lakh and cash worth Rs 16 lakh.

He said that he usually leaves for his store early in the morning. When he left his home at around five in the morning on March 29, the thieves apprehended him at gunpoint and forced him inside. They threatened to murder Surinder Sehgal and his wife if they attempted to sound the alarm, and they taped their mouths and wrists.

The pair was alone, as far as they knew. They spent more than thirty minutes inside the property, according to the CCTV video. The victim’s wife contacted her son-in-law as they were leaving his residence, and police officers eventually arrived.

The accused had been doing a reconnaissance of the residence and waited for the victim to leave in the morning, according to the CCTV evidence. The moment he emerged, they had him at gunpoint.

According to Gill, Gurpreet was charged with two crimes in 2004: one related to theft and the other under the Arms Act, while Pawan Sharma was charged with murder. In a similar vein, Ashok was the subject of two fraud charges filed in the district of Pathankot.