Two get 5 years RI in robbery case

Vadodara, Mar 6 (UNI) A Vadodara fast-track court today sentenced two robbers from Patna to five years rigorous imprisonment (RI) for looting a jewellery shop at Anand in March 2005.

Presiding fast-track judge V J Mehta, who pronounced the verdict, sentenced Ashish Yadav and Pankaj Kumar to five years imprisonment and also fined them Rs 2,000.

According to the prosecution, on March 10, 2005, Rajesh Pandey and the two convicts - Ashish and Pankaj (all from Patna) - looted gold ornaments worth Rs 17 lakh from a jewellery shop in Anand at gun point.

The robbers, who managed to flee with the booty on a motorbike, had to hijack two cars on their run as Gujarat police continued to give them a hot chase from the very beginning. The trio were finally nabbed by Karjan police at Palej when the hijacked Tata Sumo, they were travelling in at high speed, skidded off the road.

However, Pandey, the other accused in the case, was killed in an encounter with the police while trying to escape from the custody of Borsad police after snatching a service revolver of an officer of the Borsad police station.

UNI