3 Chandigarh cops arrested for harbouring UP ATM heist accused

In major embarrassment for the local police, three cops, including an inspector in-charge of the district crime Cell (DCC), were arrested by the crime branch of Chandigarh Police on Wednesday for allegedly harbouring two accused wanted in a ₹5.26-crore ATM heist reported in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

The trio, including inspector Jasminder Singh, head constable Satish Kumar and senior constable Samunder, have been arrested on the charges of “destruction of evidence, suppression of facts, harbouring the accused, forgery of documents and criminal conspiracy”.

They will be produced in court on Thursday. Earlier on Tuesday, they were placed under suspension with immediate effect.

On March 4, a heist of ₹5.26 crore was reported in Bagpat, UP, where two employees of CMS company, namely Gaurav Tomar and Rocky Malik, siphoned off the money during regular refilling of cash in ATMs.

Fearing harsh action from UP Police, the two accused, along with two friends, escaped to Chandigarh, where a local Munish promised to help them surrender before Chandigarh Police.

As per the allegations, the officials of DCC, Chandigarh, in active connivance with middleman Munish, planted fire arms and arrested them after registering a case at the Sector 39 police station.

After learning of the conspiracy, the UP Police informed the senior officials of Chandigarh Police, who ordered immediate suspension of the three cops.

As per the FIR, these police personnel facilitated the arrest of the accused despite having full information regarding their motives to evade arrest by UP Police and guided them to buy firearms from local sources.