New Delhi:
Within 48 hours of the audacious heist in south Delhi, the police have arrested three suspects who were allegedly involved in the Rs. 5 crore robbery from a cash van in the Defence Colony area on Friday. They have also recovered Rs.2.83 crore from the suspects.
Apart from the alleged mastermind Deepak Sharma, who was arrested on Saturday and sent to one-day judicial custody, police arrested two more suspects today, identified as Mukesh and Tekram. According to police, they helped Deepak in the robbery, but were not in the car that intercepted the cash van. Part of the looted money was dropped off in their house at Khirki village after the heist. Both of them have been sent to police custody for questioning.
Investigators said four more suspects were also detained in the case.
The breakthrough in the case came after police managed to fish out dossiers from its records as victims, eye-witnesses and informers providing detailed description of suspects who were spotted in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar and Khirki areas.
Police suspect the heist was a job of an insider from the security agency called Premier Shield, who has been identified. According to police the four accused involved in the crime - Harikrishan, Ranjit, Deepak and Vijay - met in Tihar jail earlier. Ever since they were released around five years ago, they were involved in several cases of robbery in south Delhi.
At a press conference in Delhi today Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Gogia said, "Deepak Sharma is the mastermind of the heist." According to police, said he was involved in three other robberies earlier. Deepak's test identification parade will take place tomorrow.
Mr Gogia said four men were spotted by some locals in Khirki with big boxes and with their description, a portrait of one of the suspects was developed.
Police sources said two relatives of another accused, who is on the run, were arrested and were produced before court. However, they refused to divulge the names of the arrested saying it could impede the investigations.
The gang had waylaid the cash van, pinned down a security guard and shot him after he tried to snatch their weapons. They fled the spot in the cash van leaving behind the car in which they were following the vehicle.
They abandoned the car in Hauz Rani and later empty cash boxes were found in Khirki village where police deployed personnel in plain clothes on surveillance.
(With inputs from Agencies)