Police control room received a call on Sunday, about people in Khallaua village of Malpura block having nabbed... Read More

AGRA: Police control room received a call on Sunday, about people in Khallaua village of Malpura block having nabbed two thieves. The policemen were happy to find that one of the two men the villagers had nabbed was Netrapal Singh, a wanted criminal. The happiness of the cops did not last long – on interrogating the thieves, they found that the villagers had divested the men of their loot and weapons before calling in the police.

Nethrapal Singh, the man police in Firozabad and Agra districts were seeking, had been beaten black and blue by villagers. Until the cops arrived to take him away, the villagers, having given him a sound thrashing, allowed him to rest on a cot under a neem tree.

Police said Netrapal Singh was earlier involved in cases of robbery, and had worked as part of a gang of thieves.

On Sunday, Nethrapal and three others had been involved in a loot. They had also attacked a man named Vijay Singh, taking away his wallet that contained Rs1,200. Singh had chased the robbers onto the Malpura highway.

“The robbers were on two bikes –one bike slipped and before they could get up and make off, Vijay Singh shouted to the villagers to nab them. The two on the bike that slipped were caught and given a sound thrashing. The two others sped away,” said Brijesh Singh, who was at the spot when the incident occurred.

As the cops led the two away, one of them protested that this time, they were victims, not criminals. The cops would have none of it, but on arriving at the police station, discovered that the men had indeed lost the money they had looted – several lakhs of rupees. They had also lost three revolvers and a laptop.

Policemen then returned to the village to attempt to make the villagers part with the money.

“After first refusing to give up the money and weapons, villagers gave up Rs49,000 and one of the three revolvers. One man returned a laptop,” Sunil Kumar, a villager, told TOI. He added that the money had been looted from a man called Ram Niwas.

SHO Malpura, Jai Karan Singh told TOI that the other man nabbed by the villagers is called Bunty. “They are both men with a history of crime. We have handed back the Rs49,000, laptop and revolver to the man they had looted,” the SHO said.

Asked about the rest of the money, the police officer said it was most likely carried away by the two men who fled.