45 laptops worth Rs 22L stolen in Ludhiana

Ludhiana-based ST Computer and Only Branded.com suffered a combined loss of
Rs 22 lakh, as a result of a recent robbery incident. Three men broke into their
showrooms and ran away with 17 and 28 units of laptops, respectively. The total
loss incurred by ST Computer amounted to Rs 7 lakh while Only Branded.com lost
Rs 15 lakh. The incident took place at about 2am, when the three men broke into
the showroom by tying up the security guard at gun. They tampered the locks and
other security devices installed in the showroom. They even damaged the infrared
lights that were meant to send signals to the owner if someone tamperd the
security system.

Ravinder Kahloon of ST Computers came to know about the incident only at 7am.
“When we opened the shutter, we found that the locks were broken and all the
laptops were stolen. There were 17 Dell laptops and all of them were found
missing; they did not touch the desktops though. We have registered a complaint
with the police but no action has yet been taken from their end. We are not even
sure about the involvement of any known person in this case,” he revealed
pointing out that theft cases in Ludhiana has become a routine thing. ST
Computers is the regional distributor of Dell in Punjab.

Manu Gupta, the owner of Only Branded.com informed that though his showroom
was secured with two shutters and various other security systems, the thieves
still managed to break in. The brands of laptops stolen from his showroom
included Lenovo, Compaq, HCL, Toshiba and Acer. Both the showrooms are located
adjacent to each other at the Pakhawal Road.

Association of Computer Entrepreneurs (ACE) is supporting both the victims;
ST Computers is a member of ACE. Both the companies have registered an FIR of
the incident and police is investigating the case. As of now, no action has been
taken by the police, though it has assured that the stolen laptops would soon be
recovered. This is sixth incident of theft reported in Ludhiana this year.

“We are giving our full support to both the partners. Though Only Branded.com
is not a member of ACE, we will lend a helping hand to it also so that they are
able to recover the loss as soon as possible. We are also approaching the police
to get the matter solved,” claimed Ankur Gupta, PRO, ACE.

Earlier, another reported case of robbery at Fast Track Computers took place
in the same locality.