PLOT Army jawan, along with a dismissed colleague and a policeman, looted old notes from a hosiery owner on Saturday

From page 01 LUDHIANA: The police arrested an army jawan, along with a dismissed soldier, on Monday for looting `7 lakh in scrapped currency from a hosiery owner.

The police recovered `6.30 lakh from the possession of the accused, besides an air gun and scooter used in the crime committed on Saturday.

The accused told the police that they planned to exchange the scrapped currency with new notes after depositing it in their saving accounts.

The accused were identified as jawan Ramesh Kumar and Vikas Kumar, a dismissed jawan, both residents of Hisar district in Haryana. Vikas was dismissed from the army for being absent from duty without information. Their third accomplice, said to be a cop, was yet to be arrested.

The accused were produced in a local court and were remanded in police custody for two days.

SHO Beant Juneja of Division-5 police station said the accused stopped hosiery owner Manpreet Singh of New Shivaji Nagar, who was going to Model Gram to deposit `7 lakh in a bank on Saturday afternoon near Government Senior Secondary School, Jagraon bridge, and robbed him at gun point.

The victim also alleged that a cop in a Swift car also reached the spot and threatened him. As the accused left the place, he immediately informed the police.

The SHO said the police would inform the income tax department for relevant investigations.

Assistant commissioner of police (ACP-west) Surinder Lamba said the police arrested the accused when they were planning to commit another crime. He said the police were questioning the accused about the cop involved in the crime.