As the prices of onions soar, robbers are now not setting their eyes onlyon gold and cash, but the vegetable too.
After reports of onions being looted from shops and godowns from acrossthe country, another one was reported from Bihar. Six armed criminals lootedaround 5 tonnes of onion worth Rs 3.5 lakh from a truck on the old Grand TrunkRoad under Mohania police station area in Kaimur district?on the night ofDecember 26.
Each sackcontains 50kg of onion. The price of one kg of onion in the local market variesfrom Rs100 to Rs120/kg.
The policecomplaint said that six robbers travelling in a car?intercepted the trucknear Muthani diversion on the GT Road, now known as National Highway-2, around10.30 pm on Thursday and held the driver, Desh Raj, captive at gunpoint.?
Theyhijacked the truck loaded with 102 sacks of onion and drove it to anundisclosed location where the commodity was unloaded.
The robberskept the driver in a moving car for four hours before dropping him to adeserted place. The captors told the driver that he would find his truck parkednear a petrol pump located at Pusauli.
¡°Desh Raj,in his early 50s, walked for over one km on foot to get a lift in a mini truckto reach the place where his truck had been parked by the kidnappers. Aftertracing the truck, he informed the Jehanabad trader, Md Minhaz Raes, who hadbooked the consignment from Allahabad,¡± according to a report by The Times ofIndia.
¡°An FIR hasbeen lodged with Mohania police station in connection with hijacking of thetruck and loot of onion loaded on it,¡± he told the newspaper.
The drivertold that he was also thrashed in the car.?
Mohaniapolice station SHO Uday Bhanu Singh said a case has been lodged againstunidentified persons on the statement of the truck driver. ¡°Raids are on to nabthe criminals involved in the crime,¡± he told TOI.
In another robbery,64 sacks of garlic worth Rs 2 lakh were looted from a mini truck nearPachchahganj under Kudra police station area in Kaimur district on December 6.