Police question the residents of Netaji Nagar after the robbery. (Hardeep Singh)

Jamshedpur, July 13: Absence of proper police patrolling on the stretch between Chandil and Tamar on NH-33 helped a gang of criminals to lift over a dozen trucks, oil tankers, long-distance buses under Ichagarh police station area early today.

The four-km stretch barely receives proper police attention and has no armed guards or anti-landmine vehicle manning the road. Armed men decamped with cash to the amount of Rs 3 lakh from truckers and bus passengers in the two-hour-long operation at Naga Sareng area on the highway. Robbers punctured vehicle tyres by spreading nails on the highway.

Though 13 vehicles, including four buses were looted, only a single FIR was registered at the Ichagarh police station by one Mohammed Salauddin, a driver of a tanker.

He reported that some 12 men took away Rs 2,600 and his cell-phone from him at gun-point.