Ludhiana: A pre-dawn commuter gang held eight deboarded train passengers at knifepoint inside a rogue auto-rickshaw, robbing them of cash and forcing a digital wallet transfer of more than ₹58,000.The ambush on May 16 highlights a critical security gap outside Ludhiana’s central railway station, where police have repeatedly failed to track unauthorised transport operators despite a string of violent robberies and a high-profile gang rape.Dilip Kumar Morya, who had just arrived from Greater Noida to visit his sister, boarded the auto-rickshaw at 4.45am alongside seven other commuters. When the driver pulled over in the Basti Jodhewal, two accomplices armed with knives ambushed the vehicle.The gang stripped seven passengers of ₹4,000 before turning on Morya. “They snatched my phone and used threats to force four online transactions totaling ₹58,300 into an account,” Morya said. “They then abandoned us on the road and fled.”Jodhewal police registered a first-information report (FIR) this week under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for snatching and joint criminal intent, naming Gagan Dhir as the primary suspect after tracing the digital transaction to his bank account.Assistant Sub-Inspector Harpal Singh said the delay in filing formal charges had stemmed from an evidentiary vacuum. “The robbed people could not provide the auto-rickshaw’s registration number, and there were no immediate witnesses,” he said. “We are now working to locate Dhir, catch him, and identify his associates.”The robbery follows a pattern in Ludhiana, where gangs use public transit as a front to target vulnerable travellers arriving during odd hours. Police previously dismantled a four-man gang linked to 12 commuter robberies in late 2024, and arrested an e-rickshaw ring in 2023 that used decoy passengers to pickpocket commuters.Local authorities have faced intense scrutiny over their inability to regulate the city’s transport sector. In Dec 2025, following the gang rape of a 20-year-old woman by a juvenile auto-driver and two accomplices, the Ludhiana police announced a comprehensive registry to audit authorised and unauthorised vehicles.That data-collection initiative has since been abandoned, leaving thousands of undocumented drivers operating with near-total anonymity.
