The Hindu : New Delhi News : Robbers at it again in Capital

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Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
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New Delhi

Robbers at it again in Capital

Staff Reporter

After two Delhi banks, the target now is cash security van carrying lakhs

16 lakh gone but 2 crore lying in cash van left untouched
Police suspect very same gang that looted bank a day earlier

NEW DELHI: Less than 24 hours after a gang of robbers looted over Rs.23 lakh from a bank at Samaipur Badli in the Capital, four armed men waylaid the employees of a security services company and robbed them of over Rs.16 lakh in cash on the busy Ring Road at Ramakrishnapuram here on Tuesday.

The A. P. Securitas Private Limited employees parked their cash van on Ring Road near Satya Niketan colony around 10 in the morning and two of them got down carrying a bag containing over Rs.16 lakh in cash.

The two -- Uttam Bahadur (26) and Ratnesh (27) -- had barely covered a few yards on foot when four armed men on two motorcycles waylaid them and snatched the bag. All four were wearing helmets and carrying pistols.

One of the robbers fired half a dozen rounds injuring Uttam. A stray bullet even pierced the windscreen of a Santro car parked close to the van.

An eyewitness, Benu Garg, told the police later: “I was having my morning tea on the ground floor verandah of my house when I heard some loud noise followed by a gunshot. I rushed out and saw two men on a motorcycle trying to snatch a bag. One of them wore a green jacket. They fired over half a dozen shots before driving away on their motorcycles.”

Ironically, over Rs.2 crore in cash lying in the van remained untouched.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) H. G. S. Dhaliwal said that of the looted cash over Rs.14 lakh belonged to Haryana Vidyut Board and the rest to Delhi Jal Board.

“The cash was collected on Monday and kept at the company’s central office in Delhi Cantonment. It was being brought to the Satya Niketan office and was to be deposited in the Corporation Bank at Jhandewalan and the HDFC bank in Faridabad.”

As in the previous two sensational bank robberies in the Capital this month – the other at Hauz Khas in South Delhi a week ago in which Rs. 6 lakh was looted -- where security guards were on leave when the robbers struck, no security guards were accompanying the cash van on Tuesday as well.

The police suspect that those behind the Samaipur Badli bank robbery could be involved in the latest incident too.

“A similar modus operandi was employed in the two cases and there could be some connection between the two,” said a senior police officer.

Raised in 1986, A. P. Securitas operates in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as well. Another van of the company was robbed of Rs.60 lakh in cash in a similar fashion earlier this year, the police officer said.

“Since the Act governing the working of private security agencies has not been notified by the Delhi Government, the company had been operating here without a licence,” the officer said.

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