Nine days after a factory owner was robbed of ₹9.5 lakh on RK Road near Cheema Chowk, three of the six robbers were arrested on Sunday.
A former staffer, Sonu Kumar, who had worked at the hosiery factory as a sanitary worker for three years, was the mastermind of the robbery, commissioner of police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said.
‘Kumar, who had quit seven months ago, knew that the factory owner, Radha Mohan Thapar, distributed salaries on the 10th day of every month,’ Bhullar said, adding that Kumar had been on the spot when the robbery took place. He was among the people who gathered after the robbers struck.
While Kumar and four of his aides are on the run, the police have arrested Vishal, 19, of SBS Nagar; Sunny, 22, of Giaspura; and Azad, 25, of Shimlapuri. The bike used to execute the crime and ₹2.72 lakh were recovered from the accused.
Commissioner of police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, ‘Vishal and Sunny were found hiding in a house in Sector 25, Chandigarh. They revealed the whereabouts of Azad, who was arrested from Bharat Nagar Chowk, Ludhiana.’
Bag, cards, phones tossed into canal
The accused had split the cash and dumped the bag containing two debit cards, and two I-Phones, which they had snatched from Thapar, into the Sidhwan Canal at different locations. Divers were enlisted to fish out the items from the canal. The bag had been stuffed with stones.
The robbery, which took place on December 10, had been executed in a record 15 seconds. A case was lodged against the accused at the Moti Nagar police station.