Two held from UP for petrol pump loot

Vadodara: After more than a month-and-half of the loot at a petrol pump on the Halol Road, sleuths of the local crime branch (LCB) arrested two men involved in the crime. The accused were nabbed from their home town in Uttar Pradesh and brought to the city on Wednesday. Two other accused of the gang are yet to be arrested.
According to the police, the gang reached the petrol pump early on the morning of March 10 on a motorbike and pointing a country-made revolver at the manager, they looted Rs 27,000 from the cash counter in the office and fled the spot.The accused also fired in the air before escaping.
Within hours of the incident, cops swung into action and found the abandoned motorbike nearly 2kms away from the petrol pump. After scanning CCTV footage of Halol Road, Panchmahal, Dahod and even Madhya Pradesh, cops spotted a four-wheeler that was following the motorbike in a footage of Golden Chowkdi. “The car had license plate number of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh and it had travelled from Halol Road to Dahod, MP and then reached UP,” said the police.
A team of cops left for UP and reached Unnao where they started to mingle with the locals in camouflage. “We found out that the car belonged to key accused Chandra Prakash Sharma, a resident of Unnao, who was involved in several crimes. Our team also learnt that Sharma carried a country-made pistol. We first nabbed Sharma and then arrested his accomplice Atul Kumar Verma,” the police added.
The duo revealed the names of Dhanraj Lodhi and Ajay Kumar Patel, both residents of Unnao, who are yet to be nabbed.
Sharma has 19 complaints registered against him including loot, robbery, attempt to murder and theft in UP. Verma too has six offences whileLodhi has 20 and Patel has been booked in six different cases in the past.