5 held for robbing businessman of Ruthenium

Five people were arrested for allegedly robbing a man of Ruthenium, a precious metal, in Karol Bagh here, police said on Tuesday.

The plan to rob the businessman was hatched by 48-year-old Kulwant Singh, along with his accomplices, to cause losses to former in business, they said.

Inderjeet Singh, a resident of Amritsar, Punjab, received a call from one Nishant Verma from Dehradun, who claimed to be a jeweller.

Verma showed interest in purchasing five kilogram of Ruthenium metal powder from Inderjeet Singh. Negotiations took place and subsequently Verma placed an order for three kilogram of Ruthenium metal power and it was decided that the material would be handed over in Delhi, police said.

 

On June 15, the complainant reached a house in Karol Bagh where four men were present. Inderjeet Singh gave them some powder as sample, and they left the place to get it tested, they added.

After some time, all of them came back and one of the accused allegedly took out a knife and robbed Inderjeet Singh of the bag containing the Ruthenium powder along with a mobile phone. They locked him in the house and fled the spot, police said.

On August 4, one of the accused Amit Kumar (39), a resident of Dehradun, was arrested on the basis of a tip-off, following which the case was transferred to Crime Branch.

Subsequently, four others were also nabbed. One of them was identified as Joginder Pal, who was arrested from Ghaziabad on August 16. His arrest was followed by that of Manoj Kumar from Dehradun on August 17, police said.

Police nabbed Kulwant Singh from Amritsar on August 20. The fifth accused, Vicky, was wanted in a case in Uttar Pradesh and had surrendered before the court at Muzaffarnagar, UP, in order to avoid his arrest and recovery of Ruthenium powder from his possession by the Crime Branch. He was brought to Delhi on production warrant and, thereafter, taken into police custody, they said.

During investigation, it was found that Inderjeet Singh and Kulwant Singh are dealing in jewellery items and are business rivals. It was due to the business rivalry that Kulwant Singh prepared the plan to cause losses to Inderjeet Singh, said Rajiv Ranjan, Additional Commissioner of Police (crime).

Kulwant Singh had asked Pal to contact the complainant for purchase of five kilogram of Ruthenium and posed as Verma.

Two kilogram of Ruthenium metal powder has been recovered from Vipin's hideouts located at Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and Hisar, Haryana. Further, 150 was recovered at the instance of Pal.

Ruthenium is considered a precious metal and used for making jewellry, electrical contacts and solar cells. It is also mixed with gold, platinum or palladium to form an alloy that is used to make jewellry. The cost of Ruthenium is around Rs 6 lakh per kilogram.