Main accused in petrol pump loot and double murder case arrested

Punjab police today claimed to have arrested the main accused allegedly involved in the petrol pump loot and double murder incident that took place in PatialaThe accused identified as Lakhandeep Singh alias Waris Randhawa was arrested by the Counter Intelligence Wing Jalandhar following an alert issued by the Patiala police which had earlier nabbed two other accused Harpreet Singh alias Makhan and Sikander Singh an official saidTwo people were killed near Chamar Heri village in Patiala when the three accused opened fire during a robbery bid at a petrol pump on the night of June 17 According to AIG Counter Intelligence HPS Khakh a tipoff was received from a reliable source that the main accused would be passing via Jalandhar while travelling fromPatiala to his village in Dera Baba Nanak district GurdaspurThe information was immediately shared with the city police and joint teams of Counter Intelligence and Division number six laid a trap near bus stand Jalandhar from where 21yearold Lakhandeep was arrested he said Lakhandeep a resident of Nikka Thetharke village which comes under the jurisdiction of Dera Baba Nanak police station had reportedly abandoned his studies in 201314 after completing class 12 and started working in Apollo Hospital in Ludhiana as a billing operator in 2016However he left this job in July 2017 and started working as a sales representative in a firm owned by his cousin Harpal Singh and started staying with the latter in their house at Professor Colony in Patiala investigations so far have revealedGiving further details Khakh said that in Patiala the main accused came in contact with Harpreet Singh on Facebook The duo started meeting every day near Punjabi University in PatialaIn March 2018 Lakhandeep left the job and went back to his parental home in Dera Baba Nanak but his friendship with Harpreet Singh continued and they often chatted on mobile phone and FacebookOn one occasion Harpreet told Lakhandeep telephonically that he had been chasing an unknown person who had a licensed pistol and was a regular walker in Urban Estate area of Patiala The two conspired to snatch the pistol with the aim of engaging in some big crime As agreed Lakhandeep went to Patiala on June 16 2018 and met Harpreet near the university where he introduced him to a boy named Sikander who was staying in a PGThe three went to the PG room to plan the snatching and Sikander was asked to recce the area where the pistol owner used to come for his daily walk The next day while Sikander arranged the weapons one 32 bore pistol and two pistols of 315 bore and four live cartridges Harpeet came with smack drug which all three then consumed he saidThen they decided to loot a petrol pump that night They went to the petrol pump at the Bahadurgarh Rajpura Road on a black motorcycle which was arranged by SikanderThey tried to loot a petrol pump at the Bhadurgarh Rajpura Road but gave up the idea as it was quite crowded and went with their faces covered to another HP petrol pump near Chamar Heri villageWhen they tried to loot the petrol pump a truck driver intervened following which Sikander shot at him from his 32 pistol killing him on the spot Khakh saidAs they tried to flee after looting the money from the petrol pump another person rushed from a nearby eatery on hearing the gunshot Waris shot at him from his 315 bore pistol and all three escaped to different directions thereafter according to the investigations conducted in the case so farHowever the CCTV footage released by the police on social media groups led to some clues and the police managed to arrested two of the accused while Lakhandeep managed to evade arrest A statewide alert was then issued by IG Patiala leading to the eventual arrest of Waris with one country made pistol with one live cartridge recovered from his possessionCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever