Metro heist: former staffer among 2 arrested

Two men, including a former Delhi Metro employee, were arrested today in connection with the Rs 12 lakh heist at Rajendra Place metro station here on Monday.
"The accused have been identified as Pawan Kumar (21) and Sonu Kumar (22), both residents of Vijay Nagar near Kaushambi in Ghaziabad. They were tracked down with the help of their metro smart card details," Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) M K Meena said.
The police first tracked down Pawan, who broke down during interrogation and disclosed about his accomplice Sonu, who was arrested from his residence in Ghaziabad.
The accused told police that they had gone inside the metro premises with a knife -- with which they stabbed the station controller and made away with the weekend earnings -- and left the premises with the weapon, raising serious security concerns.

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is entrusted with the security of metro stations, had claimed the accused were frisked clean when they entered the station.
Pawan, a Business Administration graduate, had been a token operator in Delhi Metro. He was sacked from services in 2015 after the department received a complaint against him for misbehaving with passengers, an official privy to the investigation said.

He said the complaint based on which Pawan was sacked was filed by Kunal Kishore, the station controller who was stabbed in the robbery executed on early Monday morning.
The police have so far ruled out any revenge angle in the case as they claimed the strike was pre-planned and any station controller could have been in duty at that hour.

Meanwhile, the investigators also haven't yet given a clean chit to Kishore who did not raise any alarm after the incident, the police officer said.
The police have recovered Rs 10.55 lakh from the possession of the accused who were arrested in the wee hours following a series of raids in Delhi and Ghaziabad.
A high-end smart phone which Pawan had purchased with the robbed money was also recovered. The duo spent the balance amount in paying off some dues, police said.
During probe, it also emerged that Pawan had bagged the job in Delhi Metro using a wrong address.

During interrogation, police said, it emerged that Pawan had set up a mobile recharge coupon shop in Ghaziabad's Vijay Nagar after being sacked from Delhi Metro and Sonu was his regular customer who was also looking for a job and often asked Pawan about job opportunities in Delhi Metro, police said.
Pawan was also in dire need of money as he was under huge debt after his sister's marriage.
The duo soon became friends and allegedly hatched the plan after Pawan meticulously explained to Sonu security shortfalls in the Metro network, police said.