Dismissing claims by the CISF that there was no security lapse in the robbery case at the Rajendra Place metro station on Monday, the Delhi Police indirectly blamed the force, alleging that the assailants had sneaked in a knife from outside.
Mukesh Kumar Meena, Joint CP (New Delhi Range), said that Pawan Kumar, the alleged mastermind, has confessed to sneaking in the knife by hiding it in his sock.
“Pawan carried the knife inside, stabbed the official and then carried it out of the station with him,” said Mr. Meena.
Pawan allegedly told the police that having worked with the DMRC earlier, he was aware that the CISF staff only frisk the upper body of a passenger.
Not only did the CISF man frisking him miss the knife, even the metal detector installed at the entrance did not help, leaving a question mark on metro’s security.
While Meena abstained from taking direct potshots at the CISF — entrusted with the security of Delhi Metro — he focused extensively on the knife-sneaking episode to indicate who the police blamed for the incident. All this while, senior CISF officials had been pointing to the CCTV footage of security personnel taking their time to frisk the suspects before they entered the station.
Officials had also claimed to be in possession of screenshots of the suspects’ bags passing through the X-ray machine, no knife being visible in them. Pawan also told the police that he was aware that the station controllers usually dozed in the early hours of metro operations everyday and were unlikely to be alert, thus prompting him to choose the morning hours for the robbery.
The police said they are still in the process of figuring out the modus operandi.
“We will analyse the modus operandi and find out all possible loopholes,” said Mr. Meena. The police will soon write to top CISF officers to highlight the alleged lapses at their end.
“It will be in the form of a security advisory, but we will point to this incident as an example,” said a senior officer. Pawan and his associate Sonu had allegedly procured the surgical masks well in advance.
The duo was aware that the presence of a prominent hospital close to the station would not provoke suspicion and that it was not an unusual sight at the station.
The police said they were surprised that the masked suspects managed to walk all the way to the station’s control room without being questioned by any security man even once.
The duo had arrived at the station in an auto. They hired another auto to leave after committing the crime, said the police. They had distributed a portion of the robbed amount of Rs.12 lakh among themselves and had hidden the rest of the money for sharing it later.
Having worked with the DMRC, Pawan knew CISF staff frisked only the upper body
