LUDHIANA: The Ludhiana police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a gang of robbers, with the arrest of four. Led by three kabaddi players, the seven-member gang had executed three robberies at gunpoint in July and August. The police have also recovered from their possession a .32 bore revolver, five live cartridges, a sharp-edged weapon and two motorcycles used in executing the crimes.Kulwinder Singh, 30, of Shehzad village, Lalit Kumar, 22, Davinder Singh , 22, both of Lohara village, and Surjit Singh, 33, of Basant Nagar were arrested from Shimlapuri. Their accomplices -- Jagjit Singh , 24, Jaspreet Singh , 26, both residents of Shehzad village, and Bablu Chauhan , 20, of Gurpal Nagar – are on the run. Kulwinder, Lalit and Davinder are kabaddi players who participated in local events.Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP-II) Surendra Lamba said the three kabaddi players constituted this gang two months ago to make easy money. The three, who are from economically-weak background, convinced their four friends to join the gang.He said with the arrests, the police have solved three robberies reported between July 24 and August 14. “On August 10, the accused had robbed Dr Nand Kishor of Adarsh Colony, Daba Road, of Rs 12,000 and four cellphones at gunpoint. On August 14, they had snatched three cellphones and cash from financer Kulwinder Singh of Mohalla Gobindsar of Shimlapuri. On July 24, they had robbed Rs 44,000 from the employees of an LPG agency in Shimlapuri after injuring one of them,” the ADCP added.After the Shimlapuri incident, the police had released the CCTV footage of the accused on social media which helped nab them.Shimlapuri SHO inspector Davinder Singh said the weapon recovered from the accused belonged to kabaddi player Kulwinder’s brother Gurinder Singh. Months ago, Gurinder had committed suicide. Gurinder was the lone breadwinner of the family. After his death, Kulwinder faced financial problems, so he turned to the crime world.About their modus operandi, the inspector said, “Surjit used to do recce of target areas and Bablu Chauhan would sell the snatched cellphones at cheap price. The other accused executed the crime.”

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