Three people arrested for stealing Rs 14L of Noida-firm

Three people were arrested today for allegedly stealing over Rs 14 lakh of a Noida-based firm and then claiming that there had been a robbery, police said.
The accused were arrested by the Murad Nagar police. One of them Abhishek was a cash collection agent on contract with the firm, they said.
They had made a call on the '100' number yesterday claiming that two motorcycle-borne men had looted Rs 14.71 lakh from them near Duhai village on the Delhi-Meerut road, they said.
Following the call, police had put up barricades and launched a search operation to nab the robbers.

The call was received around 1 pm and police personnel were informed on wireless, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) H N Singh said.
However, later it was found that there had been no robbery and the accused had concocted the story, the SSP said.

Abhishek, who is looks after the firm's cash collection in Murad Nagar as he is a local, had made the call, police said.
Station House Officer (SHO), Murad Nagar, Ranvir Singh said that a complaint was lodged by the firm's manager Nishant six hours after the incident, and this raised suspicion.
During interrogation they confessed to the crime and fabricating the story, the SHO said.

The cash has been recovered. The money was collected over the past two days, police said, adding that one of their associates Sonu is at large.
One country-made pistol, a cartridge and a motorcycle have been seized, they said.