Rs.1.24 crore daylight heist solved, 7 arrested

The heist of Rs.1.24 crore pulled off in the capital on Wednesday has been solved with the arrest of seven people, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place in the Kamla Market area of central Delhi on Wednesday.

"Yesterday (Wednesday) evening, we received a complaint from Prabhay Mehto, an employee of a Jharkhand-based private steel company that he along with two colleagues -- Vijay Mishra and Brijesh Pandey -- were robbed at gun-point by some Sikh men wearing police uniform," a police official said.

According to police, Mehto and his colleague Laxmi Singh came to Delhi from Ranchi on Wednesday on the instructions of his employer to deliver two suitcases with Rs.1.24 crore in cash and a carton to a business client.

At the New Delhi railway station, after being received by his Delhi colleagues -- Mishra and Pandey -- and company driver Sunil Purti, the two boarded the company's car.

As the car reached Tagore Road, six men including a Sikh man in police uniform "hijacked" the vehicle and took it to Geeta Colony area in east Delhi.

The six men asked the company officials to get down from the car in an isolated place, threatened them with dire consequences, and sped away with the vehicle and the suitcase containing the cash, police said.

During investigation, the driver tried to mislead police, but on sustained interrogation, he broke down and confessed to the crime along with his six accomplices, police said.

The driver, a resident of Delhi's Anand Niketan area, told police that he was working with the company since 2009 and he was aware about the money transfer as he usually comes to receive staff from Ranchi at the railway station.

"The main accused Purti along with his friend Shraddha hatched a conspiracy to rob the money. They also involved other friends Beant Singh, Sudesh, Ashok, Naresh Sharma and Sandeep Kumar for the task," a police official said.

On his information, the other six people were arrested.

The cash amount, a locally-made pistol, a revolver, 11 cartridges, a wireless set, police uniforms, seven mobile phones, two cars and a motorcycle were seized from them.