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Police in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district have uncovered a suspected plot where 10 tonnes of steel cargo was allegedly offloaded and sold before a truck was intentionally driven into a gorge to stage a road mishap. The vehicle, which was carrying roughly 18 tonnes of steel and iron products, yielded only 8 tonnes of cargo when recovered by authorities. In addition to the illicit sale, investigators are probing an insurance settlement of approximately ₹8 lakh disbursed following the crash, which had forced the transporter to replace the lost goods at an additional cost of ₹12 lakh.
CCTV Footage Exposes Missing Cargo
The sequence of events began on April 30, 2026, when transporter Lalit Kumar dispatched 18 tonnes of steel, iron angles, and pipes from an industrial facility in Kala Amb aboard a vehicle owned by Gurpreet Singh. The cargo was intended for delivery in Rohru. On May 2, the vehicle veered into a deep ravine near Hewan in the Sataun area. Salvage operations concluded on May 8, at which point authorities discovered that nearly 10 tonnes of the consignment were unaccounted for.
Following a formal grievance lodged by Kumar, police cross-referenced surveillance recordings along the vehicle’s transit corridor. Recordings captured the truck fully laden at the departure point in Kala Amb, with subsequent cameras near Badri Pur still showing a substantial payload. The footage confirmed to investigators that a large portion of the metal was unloaded well before the vehicle plunged down the hillside.
Driver Sells Consignment En Route
Deeper scrutiny revealed that the driver had stopped near Katasan and offloaded 10 tonnes of steel to a buyer named Saurav. According to the investigation, the transaction was valued at ₹3.60 lakh, with the driver pocketing roughly ₹3 lakh in advance. The truck was subsequently driven onward toward Sataun, where the descent into the ravine occurred.
Detectives suspect the crash location was deliberately chosen following prior reconnaissance. A pickup vehicle had previously sustained heavy damage in a collision at the exact same spot. Investigators believe the driver exploited this history to make the staged plunge appear to be an ordinary, route-related driving mishap.
Inquiry Expands to Insurance Claim
The scope of the investigation has expanded to include the vehicle’s insurance settlement, as a payout of roughly ₹8 lakh was secured in the aftermath of the event. The Sirmaur Superintendent of Police ordered a thorough examination of the entire sequence, spanning the consignment’s movement, the black-market transaction, and the paperwork filed for the insurance claim.
Having absorbed the financial loss of dispatching an additional ₹12 lakh consignment to fulfill the initial delivery contract, Kumar is assisting investigators. Authorities are currently pursuing the recovery of the sold materials while tracking the buyer and any other accomplices tied to the orchestrated crash and the insurance claim.