Police cracks robbery case involving Rs 2.73 L of meat trader

With the arrest of three persons Friday, police here claimed to have cracked the robbery case involving Rs 2.73 lakh of a meat trader as it emerged that it was his aide who had concocted the crime.

On Wednesday, Noor Kaleem, who lives in Salarpur here, was on his way along with his aide Irfan on an e-rickshaw to the Ghazipur market when two bike-borne assailants waylaid them around 5.30 am near Sector 78, police said.

Kaleem was carrying Rs 2.73 lakh, which were robbed at gun-point by the duo who fled the scene, and later a case was registered at the Sector 49 police station, they said.

"During probe, when police made inquiries from Irfan about the incident, his statements appeared contradictory and on persisted interrogation he admitted to hatching the robbery plan," Circle Officer, Noida 3rd, Shwetabh Pandey said.

Irfan, 28, who runs a barber's shop in Salarpur, had known Kaleem for a couple of months, but had developed good rapport with him and would often help the trader with his logistics work.

"He knew that on Wednesdays Kaleem goes to the market with a good amount of money. Although in this case he was not certain about the amount, but he knew it was a good sum," Pandey said.

"His complicity also emerged from the fact, as known during probe, that when one of the assailants, who was riding pillion, demanded the money from Kaleem pointing a gun at him, Irfan immediately handed over the money to him without showing any resistance, which was quite an unnatural reaction," the CO said.

Among the other two arrested are Irfan's maternal uncle Yaseen, 36, and his cousin brother Rashid, 28, police said.

Yaseen, who hails from Meerut, has been jailed earlier also in similar cases, while Rashid, from Hapur, has been arrested for the first time, they said.

Pandey said police have recovered Rs 2.38 lakh of the robbed money from the trio, a motorcycle that was used in the crime has also been impounded while the country-made pistol seized.

The accused have been booked under the Indian Penal Code Sections 392 (robbery) and related offences, besides being charged under the Arms Act, police said.