5 held in robbery case

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Five men were arrested in connection with a robbery case at northeast Delhi's Usmanpur area, the police said today.

Four country-made pistols, 12 live rounds of different bores, one improvised .32 bore pistol, Rs 1.6 lakh robbed cash and two stolen motorcycles -- used in crime -- were recovered from them, they added.

The accused have been identified as Arif (34), Anil (27), Asif (23), Salman (26) and Abdi (28), the police said.

On July 16, police were informed that a few bike-born men opened fire and fled. On reaching the spot, they were told by one Narender Aggarwal, a resident of Kartar Nagar, who works in a Multi-National Company as a distributor, that when he was going to his office on his motorcycle with his colleague Sushil Kumar, they were intercepted by two bike-borne men who robbed them of Rs 11 lakh at gunpoint.

They said the accused fired in the air while escaping, Atul Kumar Thakur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) said.

On July 29, police received a tip-off that the accused were present near the Sonia Vihar police station area. Subsequently, the police team conducted a raid following which five men were arrested, he said.

All the accused confessed their involvement in the alleged robbery, he added.

During investigation, Abid disclosed that he was released from the jail two years ago and organised a gang of robbers. During this, he became a friend of one Kamal.

Kamal was a criminal and he started giving leads of cash movements by businessmen to Abid upon which he committed several cash robberies. However, his associates were arrested but he remained absconding, the DCP said.

Abid and Kamal stayed alert so that they could not get traced by the police. They contacted each other on social platforms. Through a source of Kamal, they committed the robbery on July 16 in the New Usman Pur area and robbed Rs 11 lakh cash from a distributer, he said.

From the robbed money, Kamal purchased arms for the next robberies, the officer said.

During interrogation, police got to know that the accused were planning to commit more armed robberies, Thakur said.

Police investigation is underway and efforts are being made to arrest the other robbers, he added.