Driver among 2 held for robbing Rs 1.52 crore from ATM cash van in Dwarka

Two men were arrested on Monday for allegedly robbing Rs 1.52 crore from an ATM cash van in Dwarka last week, police said.

The driver of the cash van Dheeraj Puri (35), a resident of Burari and Madan Lal (41), a resident of Rohini were arrested, they said.

Raids are being conducted to arrest the two other accused involved in the robbery of the cash van on Thursday, a senior police officer said.

Narender Kumar, the custodian of cash, had reported that he, along with another custodian Vikas Chauhan, driver Dheeraj Puri and gunman Vijay Kant Mishra, carried the cash to fill in various ATMs.

They reached at Manipal Hospital around 12 pm on Thursday where he, along with Chauhan, went inside the hospital to fill the cash in the ATM. When he came back, he did not find the van and called the driver but his phone was switched off, police said.

Later, another information was received that the driver Puri and gunman of the van were admitted in a hospital in Dwarka with injuries, police said.

The driver told police that two muffled and armed persons entered the van forcibly. and broke open the lock of the cash box and got down from the vehicle near Dwarka Sector-11 with two backpacks, the officer said.

During investigation, a similar case was reported by the same organisation last year at Patel Nagar police station where four persons had tried to rob a cash van but could not succeed and two of them were arrested, police said.

Police scanned CCTV footage in and around Manipal Hospital and noticed a car moving suspiciously at the time of the incident.

"Later, it was found that the car was being used by Lal who was arrested from Vijay Vihar in Rohini on Monday at around 2:30 pm and Rs 30 lakh recovered from his possession," said Shalini Singh, Joint Commissioner of Police (Western Range).

Puri also confessed to have committed the robbery. Total Rs 24.40 lakh were recovered from his house, she said.

During interrogation, Lal said Puri provided information in the last year robbery in Patel Nagar area, but the van could not be robbed. Since then, he was in contact with Puri.

He, along with his two other associates, met Puri a fortnight ago and hatched a conspiracy to commit another cash van robbery.

After the incident, Lal and his two associates met in Pashchim Vihar and distributed the money and escaped. Puri got Rs 30 lakh.

Lal was also involved in two cases of murder and two cases of robbery, police added.