Four persons have been arrested for looting ₹1.5 lakh and other valuables from the shop of a money transfer agent in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar, the police said on Friday.
The police have also recovered mobile phones that belong to a businessman, a countrymade pistol and ₹75,000 from the accused.
They said the three men entered agent Sanjeev Gupta’s shop on Tuesday posing as customers. They robbed Mr. Gupta at gunpoint and threatened to kill him if he raised an alarm.
Since there were CCTV cameras installed at Mr. Gupta’s shop, the accused took away the digital video recorder (DVR) along while fleeing.
A case of armed robbery was registered at Shakarpur police station following the incident.
Insider role suspected
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Pankaj Singh said the role of an insider was suspected as the robbers seemed well aware of security features at the shop.
“The robbers were also aware of the easy escape routes after the incident,” said Mr. Singh.
The investigating team activated its intelligence network and learnt about the possible role of one Mohammad Sarib alias Golden in the incident. The names of Azharuddin and Ali aka Miraz also surfaced during the probe.
“Constable Monu learnt from his informer that Sarib would visit the ITO bridge on Wednesday to dump something into the Yamuna. He was caught and interrogated,” said Mr. Singh.
He said Sarib initially claimed that he was innocent but confessed when confronted with evidence against him.
Sarib told the police that his job was to remove the DVR and destroy it. He was promised ₹10,000 for the job. His confession led to the arrest of Azharuddin and Miraz.
The three accused revealed that the robbery was planned by Mohammad Inam, a property dealer who runs a shop in the same locality, said the police.
“We arrested Inam and interrogated him. He told us that he was facing a financial crunch due to a slump in the real estate business and was unable to make ends meet. He plotted the robbery and roped in the three accused, who were in need of money as well,” Mr. Singh said.
