The Special Cell of Delhi Police has recovered Rs 4.67 crore and nabbed 13 people including a juvenile and a Haryana policeman in the sensational daylight heist case in which Rs 7.69 crore were looted in south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area on January 28, police said today.
Gulzar Ali alias Bhola, Praveen Kumar, Tilakraj Lohiya alias Tinku, Satish Tripathi, Joginder alias Johny, Ajay Nagarwal, Sunil Kumar alias Kake, Sandeep Kumar, Shiv Shakti alias Shakti, Pradeep alias Machhender, Prem Singh and Haridas alias Pandey have been arrested in the case so far. A juvenile, who scripted the entire loot, has also been detained in the case, police said.
"We have recovered Rs 4.67 crore in the case so far and nabbed 13 people. At least two more accused are still on the run. We expect to recover more money in the case. Out of the 13, eight are the ones who executed the robbery while the others are receivers of the looted amount," said Special Commissioner (Special Cell) S N Shrivastava.
Asked about whether the police been able to zero in on the source of such huge amount of cash or whether any action will be taken against businessman Rajesh Kalra, to whom, the money apparently belonged, Shrivastava said that the issue is still being investigated.
He, however said that they have already intimidated Income Tax department in this regard and will also be writing to the Enforcement Directorate.
"We are also mulling whether the accused can be booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA).
Out of those arrested, Shiv Shakti and Pradeep Machhender were the key henchmen who had carried out the loot in which a Honda City was hijacked along with Rs 7.69 crore from south Delhi's upscale Lajpat Nagar area on January 28.
So far, more than thirteen people have been held in this connection along with a juvenile and one Haryana police Head Constable Sandeep Kumar who had let off one of the accused after keeping a big chunk of the cash recovered from him.
Police were able to crack the robbery case after it found that it was businessman Rajesh Kalra's juvenile office boy who had scripted the heist along with his relatives Ajay and Shakti Naidu who roped in Machhender's gang. While Naidu has surrendered before the Saket court, Ajay was nabbed by the police.
In the January 28 robbery, the biggest ever in the national capital, around seven armed men intercepted a Honda City car near Lajpat Nagar Metro station early morning and fled with the vehicle and Rs 7.69 crore in cash.
