JAKARTA (JP): Police said Saturday they are still looking for

JAKARTA (JP): Police said Saturday they are still looking for
a group of six people believed to have robbed a PT Titipan Kilat
delivery truck of millions of rupiahs in goods on the Cikampek-
Jakarta toll road.

The truck was found empty by police along the roadside on Jl.
Raya Bogor in the Kelapa Dua area of Bogor, about 20 hours after
the robbery which took place at 2 a.m. on Thursday.

"We're still searching for the six fugitives," an officer at
the Bekasi police precinct told The Jakarta Post Saturday.

Police have yet to identify the robbers.

The officer, who refused to be named, said that the driver and
his assistant, who were discovered tied up at the roadside by a
police patrol, were released on Saturday after intensive
questioning.

"We no longer have to question them in connection with the
robbery as we found no evidence that they had any role in the
theft," the source said.

Initially, police investigators had suspected that the driver,
identified as Endang Suherman, 31, and his assistant, Iman
Sulaeman, 14, may have taken part in the theft themselves.

"We questioned them because we were suspicious that they
might have been involved in the robbery. But, based on the
questioning by our investigators, we have found no evidence
supporting our suspicion, so that is why we are releasing them,"
the head of the Bekasi investigation unit, Capt. Edward Syah
Penong, said on Friday.

The Mercedes Benz truck, owned by the Bandung branch office of
PT Titipan Kilat, was carrying 14 bales of textiles, 114 boxes of
toothpaste and 115 boxes of various kinds of medicines, which
were to be delivered to Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

The truck, which left the West Java capital at 9 p.m. on
Wednesday, should have arrived in Jakarta on the same day because
the route, under normal speeds, can be traversed in five hours.

Endang and Sulaeman reported that the truck had engine
trouble in the Cigentur area of Bandung.

After calling their office, two mechanics were dispatched to
fix the vehicle. The next day, Endang and Iman continued their
trip to Jakarta. They stopped to take a nap at around 1:30 a.m.
at the side of the Cikampek-Jakarta freeway because they were
very sleepy.

The truck crew told the police that around half an hour later,
a group of six men pulled up in a white minibus and accosted
them. They said their assailants tied up their legs and
blindfolded and gagged them.

"We had no single chance to see the license plate of the
gang's minibus," Endang said.

Some of the suspects then reportedly put the truckers in the
minibus, while the others drove the truck away.

The truck driver and his assistant were dumped at the side of
a road five kilometers from where they had parked the truck for a
nap.

Endang and Iman, their hands still tied, were found by the
City Police Railway Patrol several hours later laying at the
roadside. (bsr)