Once peon in Parliament House, man held plotting dacoit's escape

A man who once worked as peon in Parliament House was arrested here with his associate for planning to help a dacoit escape from police custody and to kidnap an Uttar Pradesh-based businessman for a Rs.1 crore ransom, police said on Sunday.

Somvir Singh, 30, a resident of Mundka in west Delhi, was held with his aide Ramgopal, 30, a native of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, on Friday near a railway underpass in west Delhi's Rani Khera area.

Police said Somvir Singh, a notorious robber and car jacker, was released on bail in February. He set up an inter-state gang to make and execute plans for the escape of dreaded jail convicts.

"The arrested criminals were planning to recce the route to execute their plan for the escape of a convicted dacoit, Yashpal (a resident of Aligarh), when he would be brought from Kurukshetra jail in Haryana to Saket courts in Delhi for appearance on January 2," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav said.

"Their another plan was to kidnap a businessman of Agra for ransom of Rs.1 crore," Yadav said.

Somvir Singh told police he had worked as a peon in Parliament House in 2002 on daily wages.

"As Singh was fond of lavish lifestyle, he started committing robbery and car-jacking after forming a gang. In 2005, he and his associates were arrested after a brief encounter with police and were found to have been involved in number of car-jackings and robberies. He remained in jail for more than six months," the officer said.

"Again in 2006, he was arrested in a robbery case in Haryana and remained in jail for two years and met with Yashpal. He was released on bail on February 8 and since then he was in regular touch with Yashpal," the officer added.