Gold heist: Brother-sister duo arrested

A brother-sister duo were today arrested for allegedly looting gold biscuits worth about Rs 4 crore from the office of a cash logistics company here, police said.
In the wee hours yesterday, the two accused entered into the office of cash logistics company SIS Prosegur armed with a hammer, an iron rod and a bag, and attacked a watchman they encountered on the way before breaking into the room where the gold was stored.
They then allegedly made away with 140 gold biscuits weighing about 100 gm each and worth Rs 4 crore, police said.
Sagar Bhagchandani (20) and his sister Pinky Bhagchandani (25) were arrested from their flat at a posh locality here today by the city crime branch sleuths, who also recovered 13.5 kg gold worth Rs 3.8 crore hidden at their apartment, a release from the crime branch said.

According to police, the siblings had planned the robbery as they were under debt of Rs 15.5 lakh incurred due to loss in cricket betting, and due to their lavish lifestyle.
While Sagar is a third-year BBA student at a city college, Pinky is a B.Com graduate, who got divorced last year and was currently living with her parents.

The duo had to pay back loan to a private lender, Narendra Desai, at an interest rate of 7-10 per cent, and were forced to pay 50 per cent penalty for delays in loan instalment repayment, police said.
So, they planned the robbery at the office of the cash logistics company, located in Navrangpura locality, two days before committing the crime, police said.

"The duo had to pay Rs 11 lakh lost in cricket betting to one Vikas Tripathy, and had also to settle a bill of Rs 4.5 lakh at a hookah bar where they frequented. They also had to pay back money lent by one Narendra Desai," police said.
Soon after committing robbery, they gave a gold biscuit to Desai as loan repayment, which the police said was being recovered.
They used a motorcycle from the garage of their father, an automobile consultant, to commit the crime.
Police tracked down the duo with the help of CCTV footage recovered from the site of the crime, and tip-off from sources.

The siblings were booked under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 394 (causing hurt in robbery), and 452 (trespassing), of the IPC, and other sections of the Gujarat Police Act.