A sub-inspector of police Sheikh Ashanul Haque, who is on probation, was travelling in a bus in plainclothes on Thursday night when he chanced upon and nabbed with the help of co-passengers a group of four armed robbers who were fleeing with a huge haul of gold and cash looted from a jewellery shop in Dankuni earlier in the day.

Police sources said a group of six armed robbers had raided a jewellery shop in Hooghly’s Dankuni on Thursday afternoon and escaped with a huge haul of gold and cash. The police shared the CCTV footage of the loot with all nearby police stations following instructions of Chandernagore police commissioner Amit P Javalgi. Ashanul, who is posted at Bhadreswar police station, had received the CCTV footage that was shared by one of his seniors.

Describing how he managed to nab the robbers, a police officer said that Ashanul had boarded the bus in Arambagh a little before 9pm and was bound for Goghat. He had seen the CCTV footage and could identify a bag that looked similar to the one the goons carried during the raid.

The police officer, who spoke to Ashanul after the incident, said one of the robbers sat beside the cop in the bus and it became easy for him to repeatedly see the bag.“It was not easy to spot a bag at night, match it with footage and catch the armed goons. He spotted the bag while the robbers boarded the private bus at Arambagh but only acted after he was confirmed,” said a police officer in Hooghly.

“He rechecked the footage and was convinced that it was the bag that one of the robbers had carried during the loot. Around 10 kilometers from Arambagh, he pounced on the robber sitting next to him and also caught hold of two others. He asked his co-passengers and locals to help him to catch them,” said a police source.

Once the police officer caught three of them, his co-passengers held on to the fourth robber. As the bus stopped near a bazar in Goghat, the four were taken to a local club and the police were informed. Police from Goghat and Arambagh soon reached the spot and took the robbers in custody. They also seized three bags containing around nine kgs of gold ornaments, Rs 5 lakh in cash and five improvised firearms.

The robbers were Binay Das, Sanjib Das, Akshay Paswan and Arun Kumar Mahata. The first three are residents of Bihar and Mahata is from Jharkhand. They were produced before a court in Serampore on Friday that remanded them in seven days’ police custody.A senior IPS officer commended Ashanul for his brave act because he risked his life as the robbers were carrying firearms.“As a cop, we always need to be very careful to detect criminals in a public place as they could harm others. However, the young cop did a great job,” he said.

Javalgi also praised the junior cop for his alacrity in arresting the robbers.“The young sub-inspector really did a good job. We all are proud of him as the crime was detected within hours. As soon as we received the information of the robbery, I personally took the initiative to send CCTV footage to all neighboring police stations,” Javalgi said.

The police said after the robbery the goons discarded their motorbikes near Bhadreswar or Singur railway station and took a train to Arambagh.“There were two more who went by another route. We will arrest them soon. We are contacting Bihar and Jharkhand police to know the background of these criminals,” said Javalgi.