In a brazen early morning operation, a trio of masked thieves carried out a lightning-fast robbery at a prominent dairy in Ludhiana, making off with a substantial sum of cash in under three minutes. The incident, which has left local business owners alarmed, occurred on Tajpur Road and involved high-performance machinery and sharp-edged weapons.
The Surgical Strike on Dashmesh Dairy
The target was Dashmesh Dairy, owned by Amanjot Singh. The robbery unfolded in the early hours of Wednesday, between 4 and 5 am. Despite the shop's location near a local police post, the perpetrators, now locally dubbed the "Skoda gang", executed their plan with alarming precision.
CCTV footage captured a white Skoda sedan pulling up on the main road. Three men emerged and first attempted to force open a side shutter using force and sharp tools. Failing that, they successfully broke open the main shutter and barged inside.
"They took the entire cash drawer and even the donation box," said owner Amanjot Singh, who was alerted by a neighbor at 5 am. The loot amounted to more than Rs 14.5 lakh. While the internal cameras recorded the theft, the criminals had obscured their vehicle's identification plates.
A Two-Part Crime Spree Unfolds
Police investigations revealed that Dashmesh Dairy was not the gang's first target that night. Just minutes before the major heist, the same crew allegedly struck a nearby flour mill owned by a merchant named Sunny.
Using similar sharp-edged tools, they forced open the shutter of the mill and looted approximately Rs 25,000 in cash. The empty cash drawer from the mill was later found discarded just meters away from the dairy, providing concrete evidence linking the two crimes.
Sub-inspector Sukhwinder Singh confirmed that while the getaway car is visible on footage, the registration number plates were not legible in the initial review. Detectives are now expanding their search to the Ludhiana Safe City network, a comprehensive grid of high-resolution government cameras. They hope to track the Skoda's escape route and capture a clear image of the license plate.
Security Lessons for Businesses on High-Speed Roads
The back-to-back incidents on Tajpur Road have highlighted a specific vulnerability for businesses located on high-speed thoroughfares. Such locations can facilitate quick getaways for criminals. In response, police and security experts are advising shopkeepers to enhance their security measures significantly.
Recommended precautions include:
- Installing robust "shutter guards" or floor-anchored bullet locks.
- Angling at least one CCTV camera specifically towards the street to capture vehicle registration plates clearly.
- Bolting cash safes directly to the floor or structural beams to prevent easy removal.
The Ludhiana police are actively pursuing all leads from the CCTV networks to apprehend the swift-moving Skoda gang and prevent further such audacious robberies.
