The Bank Robbery

The Bank Robbery

Explained by Shaheed Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda

“…The Jhujaru Singh groups were in dire need of weapons to truly fight the cruel forces of India. But to obtain weapons, money was needed and it was needed fast. We knew that money from small bank branches would not suffice; large quantities of money was needed. Even if we were going to rob a small bank, we would have to train as if we were going to rob a large bank. In any case, we soon decided to rob a larger bank as we had strong young Singhs and weapons. So, together with the Singhs, we held a meeting in which it was decided that my duty was to take care of the Singhs; Charanjit Singh ‘Talwandi’ was assigned to acquire appropriate cars and trucks that were fast enough to escape with the money; and, Bapu Malkit Singh’s duty was to acquire the appropriate weapons to use for the robbery. With that, everybody had their own specific duties to carry out.

After much searching and deliberation, I soon found a bank which was perfect to target. The bank was in an industrial area of Ludhiana. I sat with the main brothers and informed them of the recommended bank, they all agreed on this target. We soon went into the bank undercover as daily customers and began noting the positions of cameras, entrances, employees, number of guards stationed to each exit, and took note of the escape routes. We noticed that there were three security guards and six police officers stationed at the bank every day.

On the main road near the bank was a police station and we noticed that there was another guard who was undercover. He was stationed on the top of the bank near a balcony and would use a ladder to get up and down from there. This was no ordinary bank; the Government was well-prepared for any robberies. But then this was no ordinary bank robbery this was a bank robbery masterminded by lions of the Tenth Master and no government in the world could prepare itself for that!

There were about 300 people working in the Punjab National Bank. We found ourselves a place to stay and rent about two kilometres away from the bank. Every day at 5am, myself, (Satnam Singh) Bawa, Manju and General Labh Singh would wear our track suits and go for a jog around the bank. We would do this every morning and afternoon, all the while keeping an eye on the bank to see who would go in and out. We would even watch the bank closely from 8pm to 2am and repeated this process for about a month.

We underestimated how large of a task this would be and handling so many guards would be a big obstacle. With the grace of Waheguru, we began plotting ways to make sure the robbery went as planned. We got to know that the bank housed 15-20 crore rupees. Finally, it was decided that the robbery would only work if we went in disguised as police officers. Dhana Singh Hawaldar was given the duty of making the police officer uniforms. Brother Charanjit Singh procured a small truck and a Maruti van, and he bought them both to me in Ludhiana. Bawa and myself changed the colour of the truck to blue, as the truck had been reported stolen and newspapers in the town were talking about it. I decided to use my own car as a back-up and alternative means to escape, if needed. I instructed my friend to stand outside next to the car on the day of the robbery to act as if the car was being stolen from him – this way the police would not suspect my friend for harbouring or helping the bank robbers.

Shortly after, myself, Labh Singh, Bittu, Charanjit Singh and others selected the best-of-the-best young Singhs for the robbery. We selected them based on their mindset and those who would not fall into the trap of feeling proud of themselves, having robbed one of the biggest banks in the country.

Then we called all of those Singhs who had been selected to Ludhiana for a meeting. Nobody had any knowledge of the bank robbery plan except for those Singhs who were selected and us. General Labh Singh and I made sure we left no room for error as one of the biggest bank robberies in modern history was about to begin.

Day before the robbery, myself, General Labh Singh, Mathra Singh, Bhai Gursharan Singh Gamma Pehlwan, Manjit Singh Manju and Bawa stayed the night in a rented house near the bank. Daljit Singh Bittu also stayed at house in Ludhiana, Ajmer Singh Pardhan also. While Shindu stayed with Balbir Singh Fauji. At that time, it was very convenient for them to spend the nights in Ludhiana because many of them already lived in and around the city. Rest of the Singhs we had planned to meet at a location in the morning.

(FIRST ATTEMPT)
We covered the large truck with tarpaulin and inside we changed our clothes to police officer uniforms. We then prepared the car for the robbery. Then in the truck, we did Ardas and gave Karah-Parshad to all the Singhs.

Dhana Singh alias Jaspal Singh Hawaldar put on the uniform of an inspector, Bapu Malkit Singh, Pehlwan and Gurdev Singh Sattywali put on uniforms of hawaldar, while Rajwinder Singh Raji put on a regular police officer uniform. Pehlwan armed himself with a sten gun. Bapu and Bhai Gurdev Singh Sattyawali armed themselves with .303 rifles.

I proceeded to drive the truck and reached a government tax checkpoint where all were to meet to regroup as whoever was going to be a police officer would meet here. Everyone had their own specific duties to carry out, given to them previously during early stages of training. Those dressed as police officers travelled to the bank in a car, while I had a small Toyota truck in which I drove in front of the car. We gave the larger truck to Mahesh Inder Singh Meshi, who parked it up at the Bypass.

I arrived at the bank an hour before the Singhs in police uniforms. Near the bank, Labh Singh, Sukhwinder Singh Shindu (KC Sharma) and Balbir Singh Fauji were all waiting in a Maruti van, armed with AK47 rifles and G3 rifles, in case the C.R.P.F surrounded us. No one knew of this as the van was parked quite far away from the bank. Ajmer Singh Pardhan, Gurmeet Singh Tony and Navtej Singh Raju of Ludhiana, were called to arrive outside the bank on scooter and motorcycle. I had given them clear instructions to patrol around the perimeter of the bank and go wherever I indicated to them. They had simple role of continuously riding around the bank.

The bank had two entrances, a big main gate and a door which was open from 7:30am to 9am, after that time the big main gate was opened from 9am. During the winter, employees of the bank would have tea and read newspaper in the canteen outside before starting work. Due to this there was always a crown there in the morning. I dressed up in civil clothes and sat in the canteen.

While sitting at the canteen, I noticed the Singhs wearing the police uniforms arrive at the back exit. It was precisely 9.02am. They arrived a little late due to traffic, and since they were late, many employees had arrived at the bank. The door at the back had also opened. So, I quickly exited the canteen and approached Mathra Singh telling him, “Today isn’t the day to rob the bank, there are too many employees. We will revisit tomorrow.” Everybody else who was part of this was told to leave and meet up again the following day at 8:30am.

(SECOND ATTEMPT)
The next day we all regrouped in Ludhiana at the same tax checkpoint on Delhi Road, we did Ardas in the truck and one of the Singhs from Ludhiana made Karah-Parshad which was served to the Singhs.

I proceeded to repeat the same route of journey as I did the day prior and drove the small truck and parked up near the bank at 8am, instructing the others to stand at their assigned posts from where they would carry out their own assigned duties.

I informed two of my close friends to once again patrol the area on their motorcycles. Only Bittu and I knew what was happening. At 8.55am, I went into the canteen and sat down once again. At exactly 9am the Singhs disguised as police officers arrived. Baba Dhana Singh was dressed as a higher-ranking officer, with Pehlwan and Bapu in hawaldar uniform, Raji and Sattyawali all dressed in regular police officer uniform. The Singhs were all armed with rifles and Pehlwan was armed with a sten gun. Bawa was dressed as a clerk in civilian clothing, holding a diary in his hand. They all got out of the car.

In that time, Charanjit Singh Channi came to me, whilst the Singhs dressed as police officers, playing their part fully, approached the back gate. Dhana Singh had his beard pressed up into itself where it was tied tightly, just as a real police officer of his position would have. As I sat, I watched this game play out in front of me from the canteen. A little further, Gurmeet Singh Tony was standing. I, Gurmeet Singh Tony and Charanjit Singh all had a pistol strapped to our belts. Behind the bank, Raju from Ludhiana who was watching the rear exit was also armed with a pistol. In front of the bank near to the main entrance, Pardhan could be seen standing although he had no weapons on him, intentionally so as he had a reputation of losing his temper and didn’t want to risk putting the plan at jeopardy.

I went inside the bank twice under the pretence of using the toilet facilities, all the while being attentive with what was going on around me and noting who was in the bank. There were only five or seven people inside at the time; the police guard was stationed in rooms next to the underground safe.

The Singhs dressed as police officers came into the bank through the back exit exactly at 9pm. At this point, I was stood next to the tea stall and told the tea seller that I was a CBI officer. “You see those police officers? They are with me. We are here to investigate reports of fraud, that counterfeit money is being distributed. We are here to investigate. You are not to speak of anything or raise your voice, or else.” I signalled and pointed towards the pistol on my belt and the tea seller looked frightened. I told him “If you interfere with our investigation, I will shoot you myself. The whole bank has been surrounded.” I also then pointed in the direction of Tony and Raju and told him “See those men, they are with me.”

At that time at the tea stall, there was no customers. The two younger workers who worked at the tea stall approached. I instructed one of them to go inside the bank saying, “Inspector Sahib is inside the bank, go and get an order for how many cups of tea do they want.” The young worker went inside the bank, unbeknownst that this was part of the plan that whoever went into the bank once the robbery commenced, including customers, would not be allowed back out until the robbery was finished. The Singhs dressed as police officers, along with Bittu, Charanjit and Manju went inside the bank. Bittu and Manju were carrying suitcases with sten guns inside.

The second tea stall worker approached me and I said “The first worker hasn’t come back yet, go inside and see why he is taking so long.” The young worker complied and went inside the bank. At the same time the bank’s janitor approached me and I told him, “Go inside, the inspector is calling for you.” Just like the worker before him, the janitor went inside the bank. As the janitor entered the bank, he was grabbed by one of the Singhs dressed as a police officer and told to sit alongside the other customers in the corner.

Outside, I told the tea seller to hide his milk so that if anybody asked for tea, he could say the milk delivery has not come yet. As the seller hid the milk cannisters, the daily newspaper arrived at the stall. I handed it to Charanjit Singh, so that nobody would stand at the stall reading the newspaper and go straight in the bank.

Inside the bank, Dhana Singh dressed along with other Singhs in police uniform went down to the basement level where real police officers were posted. As Baba Dhana Singh entered, the real police guards thinking he was a real inspector quickly got up to salute. They were quite frightened because two of their colleagues had not shown up to work that morning, they had gone to their villages. The real hawaldar came up to Baba Dhana Singh to beg for forgiveness on account of his absent colleagues leaving the post unattended. Baba Dhana Singh grabbed the check-in list and weapons from them. No sooner had they confiscated the real police officer’s weapons, they announced loudly, “We are fake police officers, we are here to rob this bank!” The hawaldar laughed thinking it was a trick and continued to apologise. Pehlwan then slapped him hard across the face and then they realised that this really was a robbery. The Singhs took the real police officers and seated them next to the customers and bank tellers in the corner of the bank.

Charanjit Singh was now posted at the back gate. Tony, Raju and Pardhan acted as if they were customers and walked around outside near the rear exit and entrance gate.

The Singhs were told by us that they were strictly not to fire their weapons unless instructed by Pehlwan, Bittu or myself. Some of these Singhs providing back-up had little experience and so it was important to ensure they were disciplined. I, therefore, continued to go in and out of the bank as the robbery was taking place, instructing Tony to stand at the tea stall in my absence.

General Labh Singh’s Maruti van was visible, whose duty was to provide cover should it be needed, but for now, the robbery was progressing as planned. At approximately 9.30am, bank workers began to continuously started coming and go to the tea stall. As instructed by myself, the tea seller told the workers he had no milk. As the workers left and made their way into the bank, they were grabbed by the Singhs and forced to sit down with the others. When any workers asked the tea seller about the newspaper, he would reply that there were no newspapers delivered today. This left some of his regular customers confused, jokingly asking, “Why is this all happening today? You don’t have milk for tea, nor any newspapers to read?!”

Charanjit made sure to regularly check-in with me throughout. Raji, who was dressed as a police officer, continued to do as instructed by keeping his eyes fixed on the main gate which was still closed. Raji undertook his task fully as a real police officer would, making rounds around the main gate on a bicycle. Raji looked at me and asked, “How am I doing my duty?” I smiled and put my hands around him to say, “My brother, you are doing a very good job.”

next to the canteen was the stand for scooters and cycles. At that time, 4 to 5 women approached the bank entrance. One of the women spoke to Raji while the others stood back. I noticed that the lady had been pointed towards him by Raji. The lady came over and I also walked towards her, and came across as if I was an employee of the bank also. She said, “I am here to meet Harish.” I replied, “I work for the bank and have sent Hiresh on an urgent matter elsewhere. He is not here but will be back at around 1pm. Please, if you could, come back after that time. If there is an urgent matter, tell me and I will get the message across to him.” The lady replied, “Tell him that Anita came. And to meet me tomorrow.” To this I assured her, “No problem, I will get your message across.” The lady then left thanking me. I needed the lady to leave because if she had gone inside, she too would have been made to remain, leaving her friends outside worried and with the potential to cause a commotion.

A few days before the plan was executed, the Singhs had identified the cashiers, janitors, and gate attendants. By 10am, the customers and workers had started to gather around. The back gate was closed since it had been taken care of in the morning, leaving just the main gate. The janitor was readying to open the main gate when he was approached by Pardhan who had been directed to go there by myself. The janitor grew nervy upon seeing the apparent policeman walking towards him, so much so that he was fumbling with his keys and couldn’t open the gate.

By this point I had taken position amongst the crowd of workers and customers, dressed in regular clothing. The workers began to yell, “Open the gate, we are late for work!” and, “You’re using the wrong keys… use this key!” The janitor grew more fearful as the crowd grew louder and when it became clear he couldn’t open the main gate, I yelled out, “Open the back gate, it will be easier than us standing out here all day!” Pardhan took this as his cue, as planned, and proceeded to take over by opening the rear gate. I was now joined by Tony and Raju stood behind the crowd in case the crowd needed to be controlled.

At the back gate were Pehlwan, Mathra Singh and Charanjit Singh as well as an actual bank guard who was no longer armed. They looked at the guard and said, “Don’t get smart with us, we will shoot you right here if you try anything.” The guard implored, “I won’t do anything, please don’t shoot me! I have five daughters to get married.” The crowd of workers and customers passed through, some even greeted Bhai Mathra Singh and Pehlwan with handshakes as if they knew each other! The guard played along, and everything appeared to be normal. Mathra Singh had told the guard to show a smile, to avoid any suspiciousness.

As the workers went inside the bank, they were all shocked to see their fellow workers in the corner, held as hostages with police officers standing guard over them armed with sten guns. The Singhs ordered them all to be quiet and sit down. I also followed the crowd into the bank. I spoke to the visibly frightened workers and customers saying, “We are not here to hurt you or to steal from you. We have come for the government’s money. We will not hurt or shoot any of you. We have nothing against any one of you – our fight is with the evil Government. We will take the money and leave you all unharmed. But if you interfere, we will not hesitate to do what we have to.”

I went back out to the tea seller to continue to keep watch as the bank robbery unfolded. Sometime later, a fifty-something year old man holding a bag wrapped in a blanket walked stealthily towards the main gate, almost as if didn’t want to be seen. It dawned on me and I got suspicious that the man knew something was out of place, so I went over to him. In this time, Mathura Singh and Bhai Charanjit Singh had noticed the same man and left the bank to engage him. I motioned to Tony and Raju to join him as he reached the man and ordered, “Move into the bank, we are armed and we are police officers! We are here to raid this bank! You must come with us otherwise you will not go home for dinner with your family tonight.” But the man panicked and began to scream at the top of his lungs, “Please don’t shoot me!”

The Singhs tried to bring him into the bank, but the man put up a struggle and laid down on the floor causing a scene. A few people nearby noticed and started to walk over. Mathra Singh looked at me and exclaimed. “We’re finished! We must leave now!” he said. But I had already thought of a way out of this scuffle of a situation and retorted, “Tell Bapu to come out here now!” Bhai Mathra ran inside quickly and brought out Bapu Malkit Singh who was dressed as a hawaldar. Armed with his gun, Bapu approached the Singhs and scolded the man before leading him into the bank. The small crowd of onlookers largely dispersed having not suspected the older and distinguished Bapu Malkit Singh in his police uniform. Even the man stopped yelling and resisting once he had seen Bapu, assuming that this was a legitimate police matter.

As they headed inside, a worker on the outside asked me, “What is the matter? Is everything alright? Why are they taking that old man inside?” I replied, “I’m not sure, the police officers told me to help them and that’s what I’m doing.” Of course, I did not reveal that it was a supposed police raid and so on the outside everything seemed as it always was. However, the worker’s curiosity got the better of him and he went inside the bank.

Seeing this I too, purposely went towards the few onlookers who remained to quash any further questions, telling them, “The stupid old man started swearing and cursing at the police officers so they arrested him, nothing more.” The remaining onlookers laughed it off and left. Raju said the same to others who lingered around the road and so staved off suspicion. I then calmly returned to my spot at the tea stall.

However, it wasn’t long before another problem arose. This time a younger man approached the gate raising suspicion, and once again I stepped forward to stop him. Tony joined him as Charanjit stood at the gate. On this occasion, I took a different stance, telling the young man firmly, “This is a police raid and we are surrounding the bank on all sides. You are to come inside with us.” The young man acted calmly and began to walk between them towards the bank. But I knew something was amiss, that this young man might try to escape. Behind the bank was a training centre and just as they reached the entrance to the bank, the young man took off sidewards towards it – but Charanjit and I were able to chase him down and tackle him to the ground. The young man cried, “Please don’t kill me!”

The two of us took the young man back towards the canteen and seated him to calm him down. I assured the young man, “Idiot, why would we want to kill you?” The young man insisted that he stay there and clutched my trousers begging, “Please don’t take me inside the bank, I promise I will not say a thing!” I looked at him and said, “You can stay here but don’t move a muscle.” Having given him the chance to catch his breath, I asked, “Why did you run? Another police officer was stationed close by and if he saw you running, he would have shot you down. We have no reason to shoot you! You have no reason to be afraid. We will not lay a finger on you, even the tea seller knows about everything and look at him, you don’t see him running around like a fool, do you? We promise nothing will happen to you, I give you my word.” The young man having suitably calmed down lamented and was taken into the bank to be seated along with the other hostages.

I then went to speak to the training centre staff to ensure no alarm was raised from there following the young man’s attempted escape. The workers he met were in their first weeks of training, but alongside them now too was Raju. “What’s the matter? What was that commotion?” asked one of the training officers. I explained “We are CBI officers and we are here to raid the bank because of suspected fraud; we have received reports that fake and counterfeit money is distributed from here.” The training officer looking confused, further asked, “I don’t understand… how is that even possible?” I looked sternly back at them and snarled, “Do you think I care whether you understand or don’t understand? We are CBI officers, we are here to do our jobs, we are not here to help you understand anything!” The training officers, embarrassed and shocked, stepped back into the training centre. I then went back to the canteen and motioned Raju to keep an eye on the training officers.

A short time later, Pehlwan opened the main gate and closed off the back entrance. I walked into the bank. Inside, Pehlwan and the others seated workers on one side and customers on the other. I then addressed the workers saying, “When the cashier, bank manager, and area manager enter the bank you are to point them out and inform us right away.” And just like that, each time a cashier or manager at the bank would enter the building, their colleagues’ hands would shoot up into the air, yelling out, “Cashier!” or “Manager!” The Singhs would then seat managers and cashiers on different sides.

A little further on from the main gate was another smaller gate where Mathra Singh (Chacha) and Pehlwan were now stationed with the latter wearing an Inspector’s uniform grasping a sten gun. Bhai Mathura was wearing regular clothing so as not to attract undue attention. Some employees worked on the upper balcony of the building but were told to go through the main entrance for the day, so that as they walked through into the bank, they were apprehended and sat down with the others.

With most of the cashiers gathered, myself, Bawa and Bittu took them towards the bank’s large safe stored in underground rooms. Inside was 25 Lakh Rupees. Myself and Manju had bought fifteen large duffle bags which were originally used to store wheat flour and had kept them in the small truck that was parked outside. I brought the truck around, from where Ajmer Singh Pardhan (Amritsar) brought them in. Brother Raji now took up position firmly at the entrance of the bank in his police officer’s uniform. Nobody escaped his stern glare. As the robbery took place, any customers and workers that entered the bank, were respectfully sat down in the corner by Pehlwan and Mathra Singh. Raju who was patrolling the perimeter of the bank and I instructed him to stand guard at the canteen and to keep an eye on the tea seller to make sure he did not alert anyone.

By this time, there were some one hundred men, women, children, and elderly inside the bank. But notably none was ever yelled at, the elderly were politely and respectfully sat into chairs, and all were spoken to with respect. Far from being in fear of their lives, those inside the bank were actually helping as much as they could! The female workers went as far as requesting that the Singhs, “Yell at our senior officers who every day taunt and yell at us, because they say we arrive late.” Other workers shared their complaints with us, the Singhs who continued to listen attentively whilst performing our duties. At one point, 3 or 4 women came into the bank and upon seeing the employees and customers on the floor guarded over by the Singhs with guns were understandably terrified. But before they could say a word, an elderly lady who was sitting on a bench called out to them with a smile and said, “Don’t be afraid. Come in, they are not harming us. They are our children.” Those ladies that had walked in were returning from a Gurdwara and shared the Karah-Parshad with us whilst we seated them on chairs out of respect.

The main safe of the bank was next to the guard’s offices. Myself, Baba Dhana Singh, Bawa and Manju headed for those offices but had not yet come across the relevant cashier to the main safe. The Singhs had repeatedly called out for him to make himself known but to no avail. Assuming he was too afraid to step forward, I pointed my gun towards a man sitting amongst some workers of the bank and said, “I’m going to count to five, if you don’t point out the cashier for the main safe, I’ll shoot you.” I then pointed my gun to the man’s ear. The man shook and scared cried out, “Please don’t shoot me, I have no idea who he is. I just came here to withdraw some money.” I then looked over the employees and yelled, “I will kill 3 people, since no one is telling me who the cashier is, I’m going to start shooting employees until somebody tells me who the cashier is. And when I do find out who the cashier is, I will not spare him” Upon hearing that a man quickly stood up and ran towards me crying, “No, stop! It’s me! I’m the cashier! Don’t shoot me, I didn’t hear you before…” The cashier sobbed uncontrollably. I held him close and calmed him down, speaking so all could hear, “Don’t be afraid. We are here for the bank’s money. Not yours or anyone else’s in this room. We will not hurt you. Once we have the money we will leave.” The cashier agreed and headed towards the safe.

When he opened the safes, there were bundles and bundles of old 100 Rupees notes, stacks of them everywhere. We did not waste a single second as Bawa and brother Manju began throwing down the bundle of notes while the workers stashed them into the sacks. Meanwhile, brother Dhana Singh was delivering a speech on Khalistan and the mission of the Singhs to the hostages. He told them that their fight wasn’t with the people but with the corrupt government. The workers who were both Hindu and Sikh accepted the speech with a great response.

The Singhs had told the workers to only load old notes and not new 100 Rupees notes as the latter could be traced. I encouraged everybody, “Please load up the money as fast as you can. If the police arrive, there will be a confrontation and all of our lives will be at risk.” The workers upon hearing this worked even harder at loading the bags with one yelling at a colleague, “You did not put enough money into this bag, put more in!” By now almost all of the workers had begun to help the Singhs.

I then went upstairs and Brother Bittu handed me a hat to disguise myself, I wore that hat. I gathered some of the labourers that had come to the back earlier, I took them downstairs to help me and Pehlwan load the sacks of money onto the small truck. I also would go out and around the bank to check up on the Singhs positions. Due to spending much time with the employees of the bank, we had established some closeness. They had accepted us as their own.

After most of the money had been loaded onto the truck, I went back into the bank and called out to the men, women and children, “If anyone is in need of any money, please let me know and we will gladly give you as much as you need. If someone doesn’t want the money here, we will send it to your house.” Everyone was humbled and out of respect did not ask for a thing.

Brother Dhana Singh had preached a great amount about Khalistan to the workers and the customers. Me and Pehlwan continued to load the truck with sacks of money. Brother Charanjit Singh also came out to see what progress was being made, while he was outside, he was talking to the driver of the area manager’s car. The area manager was inside the bank along with other bank employees.

The driver was a young Sikh. He told Charanjit, “Look, the government is openly taking sacks full of money out of the bank!” Charanjit thought the driver has got suspicious. Brother Charanjit looked as me and motioned at me to ask if he should send the driver into the bank. I made an excuse and called Charanjit over and said, “Keep an eye on him. If he tries anything then get him to sit in the car. It is not safe to take him in now.” And like this Charanjit stayed with the driver and shared some laughter with him.

THE ESCAPE
When I walked towards General Labh Singh’s van. He signalled me to hurry up, because we had been in the bank for over 2 hours. Brother Labh Singh was signalling and laughing as they watched me. As we were loading the sacks of money into the truck, Mathra Singh would quietly say, “That’s enough, we’ve got more than we needed.” The bank had new notes of 100 rupees but we only took the old notes. We had filled the truck with 15 sacks of old 100 Rupees notes. When we had ran out of sacks, we used the duvet covers that belonged the real police guards and filled them with the money also.

Finally, myself, Pehlwan, Charanjit, Manju and Pardhan all got into the Toyota truck which had money sacks and left the bank. The remaining Singhs in the bank were to leave 30 minutes after the Toyota truck as planned, as in that time we would have reached our safe house with the money. No one other than me, Charanjit and Pehlwan knew the location of the safe house. Charanjit Singh was driving the truck and we sat with him in the front. One Singh was standing in the back with the sacks. Pehlwan got changed in the truck, from his police uniform back into regular clothing.

Mahesh Inder Singh Meshi was parked up in the larger truck 5 kilometres from the bank. Once we reached him, they parked alongside and switched the money sacks from one truck to the next. The Toyota truck was driven away by Pardhan and Meshi and we told them to take it to the outskirts of town and abandoned it. The Toyota truck was sent in the opposite direction from the safe house, this was done to waste the valuable time of the police. The big truck which now held the money sacks was driven away by myself, Charanjit, Pehlwan and Manju. Even Meshi and Pardhan had no idea where we were going.

The Singhs who remained at the bank waited for half hour and then locked all workers and guards in the bank, and then escaped in their car, motorcycle and scooter. Brother Labh Singh followed behind in his Maruti van.

HIDING THE MONEY & WEAPONS

One Singh, Harjinder Singh Kalia 2 kilometres away from the bank, near the cinema. He was given the car by the Singhs in police uniforms and themselves got onto the Brother Shindu’s Maruti van. Brother Shindu and Labh Singh got off the van further on and boarded a bus and left Ludhiana. Mathra Singh had got onto a bus from a bus stop near the bank and went to Amritsar. Brother Bawa took the rest of the Singhs through the alleyways, the Singhs got changed in the van and one by one started getting off the van and leaving the city.

Bawa left the Maruti van under the Field Ganj bridge, he placed a tarpaulin over the van to hide it. The van had many weapons in but the tarpaulin covered everything. We took the truck with money sacks to a factory in Ludhiana which belonged to one of our associates. It was when I got to the factory, I told the factory owner that we had brought some items that they needed hiding immediately. The factory owner said “Okay! I’ll get this done.” We said we will help with this task.

In this time, a C.R.P vehicle came and parked up. The C.R.P troops quickly started getting out of the vehicle. We quickly got back on the truck and drove off. We thought that C.R.P knows everything and now surviving will be impossible. We were thinking the news was spreading via wireless sets. We loaded our weapons and began to recite Waheguru. I pleaded with Waheguru, “Please Waheguru, save the money, we have put much of our time into this robbery, please don’t let our hard work go to waste.”

We drove the truck onto Chandigarh Road. But on that same road was a C.R.P checkpoint and they were stopping everyone; it was also impossible now to turn back. We grabbed our guns just in case the C.R.P tried to stop us then we shoot our way out. But they did not stop us.

We then drove the truck onto Machhiwara Road with the intention of finding a farmer from whom we can take sugar cane and cover the money sacks. But enroute, we saw a small brick-making factory. We then started loading the bricks onto the truck. We did not let the labourer load the bricks as the money had come out of sacks and was scattered. We put wood panels on the money, meanwhile Pehlwan, Manju and Charanjit started loading the bricks.

Brother Charanjit was wearing presentable clothing and it made him appear as somebody educated, seeing this another truck driver who was having his truck loaded with bricks called me and asked, “Which union is your truck with?” This question came as a surprise to me, I quickly answered with a name of a random truck union from Hoshiarpur. He got suspicious of us. He now got onto the top of his truck and looked into our truck; he saw the scattered money. After seeing this, the driver looked at me and started laughing. I nervously laughed back also. Brother Charanjit saw all this and came to us. The truck driver said to me, “Why are you loading the bricks onto the truck yourself?” I replied, “We came from Hoshiarpur to visit our sister. We thought, why not drop some bricks off at our sister’s house. Because they were using their cattle trailer to take the bricks from here. We thought we load the truck ourselves, and we will save our sister the expense.”

The driver laughed and said, “I know everything. I know what you are hiding in the truck.” Charanjit and I locked eyes with one another and for this reason, we will have to keep him with us. I walked towards the driver and joked in reply, “If you’re so smart, then tell us what is it that we are trying to hide?” The driver laughed and said, “You’re trying to hide drugs!” This reply to us was like, digging a mountain and finding a mouse. I laughed and replied in a friendly manner, “You already know about a trucker’s life, we don’t make that much cash as it is, so we have to do this kind of business on the side!” After this, we kept our eyes on the driver, and analysed that he really does think that there are drugs in the truck.

We then quickly stacked up the remaining bricks and concealed the money, as well as the weapons. We then made our way back onto Chandigarh Road. I had another friend who had a huge storage facility and a large home in Chandigarh, so we proceeded to travel to his house. Having parked the truck in his storage facility, I explained what we had done. We showered here and dressed in Kurta Pyjamas, which he provided us with. We all had food. He put on the VCR and we started watching.

We then gathered together to decide what the next steps were. Manju and my friend in whose house we were staying, were chosen to travel by car into Ludhiana to ascertain the police reaction and people’s conversations about the robbery. Also, to meet and instruct Bawa to return to the bridge to retrieve the van. Manju left my friend at the hotel, and fulfilled all the task before bring Bawa back to the hotel. Manju had completed all tasks within 2 hours and came back to us with Bawa. Manju shared that, “The police had set up many different checkpoints around Ludhiana and had brought many of the bank employees with them to point out anybody they recognised as being part of the robbery. Fortunately, I managed to get through the checkpoint undetected.” The we stored 50 Lakh Rupees at the storage facility.

It was at my friend’s house; we watched a breaking-news report. The news reporter stated the bank was robbed of 5 Crore 70 Lakh Rupees and 10 Crore was left in the bank because all the sacks had run out. Then at 9pm, we left my friend’s house. There were so many checkpoints, but the money was under the stash of bricks. Each time we passed through a checkpoint; we told them that we had taken on the selfless service of providing Gurdwara bricks for their building, and we are going to deliver the bricks.

Pehlwan and brother Charanjit were on the truck, while myself and Bawa were in the Maruti van. As we travelled, we stored the money at various trusted places. The police thought the money was still in Ludhiana, but I hid the money on the door panels of the van and came back into Ludhiana to leave it with trust worthy people…”

The Singhs who participated in the robbery were:

(Shaheed) Bhai Harwinder Singh alias Mathra Singh alias Chacha

Bhai Gursharan Singh Gamma Pehlwan

(Shaheed) Bhai Charanjit Singh Channi Talwandi alias Jathedar

(Shaheed) Bhai Rajwinder Singh Raji (Rajasthan)

(Shaheed) Bhai Ajmer Singh Pardhan (Amritsar)

(Shaheed) Bhai Gurmeet Singh Tony (Jalandhar)

(Shaheed) Bhai Gurdev Singh Sattyawali (Ferozpur)

(Shaheed) General Labh Singh alias Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sukha (Amritsar)

(Shaheed) Bapu Malkit Singh (Rajasthan)

Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu alias Satish (Ludhiana)

(Shaheed) Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Shindu alias KC Sharma (Amritsar)

Bhai Balbir Singh Fauji

(Shaheed) Bhai Manjit Singh Manju (Amritsar)

(Shaheed) Bhai Satnam Singh Bawa (Amritsar)

(Shaheed) Bhai Navtej Singh Raju (Ludhiana)

Bhai Mahesh Inder Singh alias Meshi

Bhai Jaspal Singh alias Baba

Bhai Dhana Singh Hawaldar