2 students put on notice

GPS tracker lands 3 car robbers in net in 60 mins

- Nikhil Sharma

MOHALI: A vigilant cab owner managed to track down three robbers who made off with his car near Chandigarh University, Gharuan, within an hour, thanks to a GPS tracker he had already installed in the vehicle as a precaution.

The car owner, Rajesh Sood, 54, lives in Haibowal Kalan in Ludhiana and operates taxis.

He narrated to police that one of his taxis, a Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, was assigned to his employee Lovepreet Singh, who was ferrying three passengers from Shimla to Kharar on Thursday night. After reaching Kharar, the three men, dressed as Nihangs, urged the driver to drop them beyond the toll plaza on the Kharar-Ludhiana road, offering extra money.

However, a dispute erupted over the drop-off point, as they had booked the cab only till Kharar, said Sood. Amid a heated exchange, one of the passengers tried to strangle Lovepreet by flinging a cloth around his neck. But he managed to place fingers between his neck and the cloth.

The driver pleaded to be let go and even offered to waive the fare, but the accused continued to assault him and threatened him with swords. They proceeded to drag him out of the car, before fleeing with the vehicle and ₹12,500 in cash around 12.15 am. But their escape was brought to a stop within 60 minutes, as the car owner put the GPS tracker into action and traced them.