Morbi bank loot: All robbers history-sheeters from Punjab, Haryana

Rajkot: Six robbers who carried out a daylight robbery in Bank of Baroda-Dena Bank in Morbi on Thursday are hardened criminals from Punjab and Haryana who are wanted for serious offences in the two states.
It was after a nearly 100 km chase in the internal roads and villages of Morbi that lasted for nearly three hours that four of the six were nabbed said Morbi local crime branch (LCB) sources on Friday.Six pistols which included three pistols of Turkey, Russian and Serbia make and three country-made revolvers alogn with 131 cartridges were seized from them.
Those nabbed were Ranjeet Singh Jat, Mandeep Singh Jat (28), Balveersingh Jat (25), Arunkumar Singh Majabi (30) and Sandeepkumar Gujjar (30) and their unidentified associate. They are history-sheeters in bank robbery, murder and drug trafficking cases. Except Ranjeet Singh and his aide, four others were nabbed by the police with the help of villagers.
LCB inspector VB Jadeja said, “After robbing Rs 6 lakh cash from the bank, the robbers fled in their car towards Halvad.”
“We alerted Halvad police station and asked them to barricade the road. However, the robbers spotted the cops near Halvad and took a U turn. They turned towards Thara village and went to Sundari Bhawani village and then to Mathak,” Jadeja told TOI.
Police then informed Mathak sarpanch Sukhdevsinh Zala who took locals and those from adjoining Naldari and Khetaradi villages and blocked the road by putting tractors, trolleys and bullock carts.
When cornered, the robbers drove their car into a farm. On hitting a dead end, they abandoned their car and started running into the field spreading 30 bighas which had maize crop.
Villagers were already deployed along the fringes of the field and they were armed with bats and iron pipes.
Jadeja formed four teams consisting of 12 cops. While one team caught three robbers, the other team nabbed another.
Police also recovered Rs 6,09,600 cash that was looted from the banks, three cellphones and a digital video recorder from the robbers.
RANJEETSINH WAS THE MASTERMIND
None of the accused had an idea of Morbi except for Ranjeetsingh Jat who was well-versed with the topography of the ‘ceramic town’. “Jat had visited Morbi as a truck driver earlier. He knew how wealthy the city was, and he passed on this information to the other accused. Together they had plotted the bank robbery,” said Jadeja.
THERE WERE REPORTS OF FIRING
Though the police have denied, there have been reports of firing by the robbers. “The villagers say the robbers had fired in the air to scare them away at the road block. The robbers also opened fire in the field,” said a source.
MASTERMIND CHANGED THE CAR
After fleeing in a car from Morbi, Ranjeetsingh alighted at Mahendranagar crossroads, got into another car and fled with another accused, whose identity could not be ascertained.