NEW DELHI: An armed robbery of Rs 8 crore from the office of a cash management agency in Punjab's Ludhiana on June 10 left the city's residents intrigued.
The drama element of it was much like a Bollywood flick. Seven masked robbers, including a woman, threatened officials inside the office to hand over cash-packed bags and fled the scene.
Case cracked
On June 14, Punjab Police claimed to have identified the suspects – with the woman, Mandeep Kaur, identified as the main conspirator. Kaur later turned out, was popular in the police records as “Daku Haseena” – which roughly translates to “charmer dacoit”.
Two suspects were arrested by June 15. But Kaur, her husband, and three others were still on the run. It also emerged that Kaur had “honey-trapped” one of the employees of the cash management agency and turned him into an accomplice.
A tip-off
The police then got a tip-off that Kaur and her husband had left for Gurudwara Hemkund Sahib, to seek blessings in the light of the successful heist.
But then the challenge was to identify them among thousands of pilgrims, especially when it is quite common for pilgrims to keep their heads and faces covered because of the cold weather.
‘Fresh and juicy'
A group of police officials, dressed as civilians, reportedly camped themselves with stocks of biscuits and packed juice at a point on the route of the Gurudwara. A Rs 10 pack of mango ‘Frooti' apparently did the trick. One of the women who removed the scarf from her face to take a sip turned out to be Kaur. Her husband was accompanying her. They were immediately identified and detained. And, with that, the police traced down the other accused in the case, they said in a presser on Sunday.
