No headway in Rs.7.69-crore heist for Delhi Police

Delhi Police have failed to make any headway in the Rs.7.69-crore rush-hour heist on an arterial road in the capital, an official said Wednesday, adding they were also looking for the source of the money robbed.

Six people robbed Rs.7.69 crore in cash from the business partner and manager of a Delhi-Gurgaon-based businessmen near the Lajpat Nagar Metro station in south Delhi and hijacked the car in which he was going with four other employees, Tuesday morning.

Police suspect involvement of some insiders in the Delhi's biggest heist and have questioned several staff of the businessmen. However, those questioned failed to give the correct source of the money.

According to police sources, the money was unaccountable and the transaction was being done through Hawala.

During the investigation, police found businessman Rajesh Kalra was arrested in 2000 for connection with bookies and charged in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing case.

Sources also said Kalra is a friend of television actor Vindoo Dara Singh, who was arrested by Mumbai police in the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal.

The first information report (FIR) of the heist, of which the IANS has a copy, did not mention the money's source.

Kalra's business partner and manager Rakesh Kumar Sharma, 32, who also deals in diamonds, in the FIR he filed stated that he usually deposited cash of Kalra and himself at a Punjab National Bank branch in Karol Bagh.

Tuesday morning, he along with his employees was going to deposit the money when robbers struck them.

Police said they might inform the Enforcement Directorate about the money. But their priority was to nab the robbers and recover the money.

Police sources said the number of robbers might be more than six. Suspecting involvement of gangs operating in Delhi and Haryana, police have questioned some of their members lodged in jails of the two states.