Two men have been arrested for their alleged involvement in a robbery near Rajghat in which a jeweller was robbed of 4-kg gold ornaments worth more than Rs 1 crore.
Along with the accused Deepak and Michael, police also apprehended their two juvenile associates on Monday and recovered around 1.8-kg of stolen gold jewellery from their possession.
According to police, a jeweller named Subham, who has a jewellery shop in Chandni Chowk, had on May 16 reported that a bag containing around 4.1-kg of gold jewellery worth Rs 1.10 crore was stolen from him by some bikers.
Giving details, police said that Shubham along with his servant Vinod was on his way to Karol Bagh in his car to deliver some jewellery to his clients when, as they approached Rajghat, he found that one of the tyres of the vehicle was punctured. He parked his car by the roadside and was replacing the tyre when the driver of a passing autorickshaw informed him that two motorcyclists had lifted a bag from his car.
He then tried to follow the motorcycle but the duo escaped.
Shubham then lodged a complaint of theft at the IP Estate Police Station following which teams of STF and Special Staff, South District, were assigned the task of solving the case.
The sleuths were looking at the possibility of the 'Tyre Puncture Gang' being involved in the crime when they received information that Michael, a notorious Madangir-based thief, might have had a role in the robbery.
"On Monday, a trap was laid near Baba Gangnath Mandir at Munirka and Michael, Deepak and their two juvenile associates were nabbed as they were waiting for one of their friends. Stolen gold weighing around 1.8kg was recovered from their possession," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) BS Jaiswal.
During interrogation, police learnt that Michael was involved in six such cases of lifting bags from cars. Along with his associates, Michael has committed theft in areas like Timarpur, Kashmiri Gate, Mukherjee Nagar, Rani Bagh, Tilak Nagar, etc., police said.
"The gang would identify cars with bags. They would then follow the car on their motorcycles and, at a red light, one of them would puncture the tyres of the car with an ice cutter. They would then follow the car till it stopped due to the flat tyre.
"Their juvenile associates would lift the bag from the car while the adult gang-members on other motorcycles diverted the attention of the occupants of the car by involving them in a conversation," said Jaiswal.
