The Mankhurd police on Thursday arrested five men in connection with the robbery of ₹16.61 lakh from a cash transport van in Mankhurd earlier this month.
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The van, belonging to Securitrans India Pvt Ltd, was carrying close to ₹2 crore collected from railway ticketing counters. It was intercepted by four armed robbers, who tied up the three employees aboard the van and stole ₹16.61 lakh.
Autorickshaw spotted
The police said while the accused escaped in a car, which was later found abandoned in Govandi, eyewitnesses had also seen an autorickshaw at the crime scene, and noted down its licence plate number.
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“We caught the autorickshaw driver, Mohammad Sigri (40), on Wednesday night. Based on his interrogation, we arrested four more people,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone VI) Shahaji Umap said.
The police said Mr. Sigri and Vijay Lohat (38) are residents of Mumbai and were directly involved in the robbery. David Lawrence (38), a resident of Raigarh, allegedly stole the car, while Jagdish Suvarna (41) from Raigarh and Santosh Rajput (30) from Thane provided the robbers SIM cards registered under fake names. Eight others are still wanted in connection with the case, the police said.
Lying in wait
The robbers were lying in wait for the van for an hour. They were aware of the CCTV cameras in the area, and chose the spot accordingly, officers said.
“The gang has committed several crimes, ranging from robbery to murder. Mr. Rajput was involved in a robbery at the Gujarat Valsad toll plaza in 2017, where ₹1.14 crore were stolen. We suspect the robbery was masterminded by Mr. Sigri, although he claims he was only the getaway driver,” Mr. Umap said.