22-day recce, two informers behind ₹1.2 crore Panchsheel Park jewellery robbery in Delhi

The incident occurred on May 10, when two salesmen of a Karol Bagh store were robbed of the jewels by two men on the Outer Ring Road

Six weeks after robbers decamped with gold and diamond jewellery worth ₹1.2 crore from the busy Outer Ring Road near south Delhi’s Panchsheel Park, Delhi Police on Tuesday announced that they had solved the dramatic daylight robbery by arresting four suspects involved in the heist, and added that they have recovered almost all the stolen jewellery.

Jewellery worth ₹1.2 crore was stolen from two employees of a store on May 10 in Delhi. (REUTERS)

The incident occurred on May 10, when two salesmen of a Karol Bagh store were carrying jewellery to showrooms in Kalkaji and Malviya Nagar. When the salesmen stopped for a drink of water on the Outer Ring Road, two robbers armed with a gun and pepper spray pounced, and fled with the jewels.

On Tuesday, deputy commissioner of police (south) Chandan Chowdhary said they have arrested four people in connection with the case — Ranjan Kumar and Ajay Kumar, two brothers who tipped off the robbers about the jewellery, and Pinku Kumar and Rahul Kumar, who carried out the actual robbery.

Police said that the four men were arrested between late May and early June, but the stolen jewellery was recovered only in recent days. They said that two more suspects allegedly involved in the robbery are on the run, and are yet to be nabbed.

She said that the two-wheeler had been sold multiple times, and the last buyer had used a fake identity card to purchase it, said the DCP. There were, however, two phone numbers that the buyer had used while making the purchase. After analysing around 35 phone numbers which had been in touch with these two numbers, Chowdhary said that police zeroed in on some numbers which were operational in Noida and Karol Bagh.

Subsequent clues led the police to carry out raids in multiple locations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Finally, between late May and early June, police arrested Pinku and Rahul from Bihar. At their instance, brothers Ranjan and Ajay were also arrested.

An interrogation of the suspects revealed that Ajay had worked at jewellery showrooms in Karol Bagh for the last 20 years, and knew about the movement of store salesmen. He allegedly shared the information with his brother, Ranjan in the hope of using the information to get jewelleries stolen or robbed, the DCP said.

Police said that Ranjan tipped off his friends Pinku and Rahul, who live in Bihar and are allegedly involved in various crimes. “Pinku and Rahul chalked out a plan in Bihar’s Nalanda. 22 days before the robbery, they arrived in Delhi and took a flat on rent in Noida,” said the DCP.

Using fake identity cards, they purchased SIM cards that they used for getting in touch with a scooter buyer and bought the two-wheeler using a fake identity card, the officer said.

Thereafter, they did a recce of the route for nearly each of those days that the salesmen travelled in Delhi with jewellery, before executing the crime on May 10.

“We have recovered 121 pieces of diamond and gold jewellery worth ₹1.17 crore and have seized the scooter used in the crime,” said the DCP, adding that a hunt for two more suspects allegedly involved in planning the robbery is still on.