5 arrested for robbing Jammu trader of ₹45 lakh in Delhi

Police said the accused had boarded the same bus from Jammu after receiving a tip-off about the trader’s cash movement from Parvez who conducted a recce near the shop where Lal worked.

NEW DELHI

In the chaos, the male accomplices allegedly fled with his bag containing the cash and high-end phones, police said.

Five members of an interstate gang have been arrested for robbing a Jammu-based trader of ₹15 lakh and iPhones worth ₹30 lakh near Majnu Ka Tila earlier this month, police said on Friday. Three women members of the gang were accusing the victim of molestation to coerce the victim into refrain from approaching the police, officers said.

Police said that the money and phones have been recovered.

Deputy commissioner of police (north) Raja Banthia said that on February 17, complainant Ramesh Lal (39), a resident of Jammu district, reported that he had boarded a private bus from Jammu to Delhi on the intervening night of February 16-17.

“He was carrying ₹15 lakh in cash and 22 packed Apple iPhones worth around ₹30 lakh for trading. Around 7.15am, after he got off at Majnu Ka Tila and was about to board an autorickshaw, three men and three women who had travelled on the same bus surrounded him. The women allegedly began accusing him of molestation and manhandling, creating a public commotion,” Banthia said.

In the chaos, the male accomplices allegedly fled with his bag containing the cash and high-end phones. With the help of bystanders, Lal managed to apprehend the three women on the spot. His smaller bag, containing his personal Redmi 10 phone, was recovered, police said. The incident was captured on CCTV cameras in the area.

The arrested women were identified as Maneeva Akhtar (24), Juna Begum (31), and Hashu Bibi (23), all residents of Udhampur and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir. During interrogation, they allegedly revealed that six people were involved and that a man named Parvez, a resident of Jammu, was the mastermind.

Police said that technical surveillance and analysis of call detail records led police to Mohd Farooq alias Imran alias Madhu (28), who was arrested in Chandigarh on February 20 while allegedly on his way to seek anticipatory bail.

Tracking another accused, Tariq Hussain alias Fareedo (33), proved more challenging, Banthia said. “Police teams moved through remote parts of Udhampur district, navigating dense forests, steep hills and stretches with no motorable roads. The raiding team covered about 25 kilometres on foot in complete darkness in dense jungle terrain. It was an eight-day-long hunt covering over 1,500 kilometres across Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Tariq was eventually apprehended from a forested area near his native village,” Banthia said, adding that police recovered ₹2 lakh in cash from him.

Based on his disclosure, the remaining ₹13 lakh and 21 Apple iPhones were allegedly recovered from his house, where they had been buried in an enclosure used for keeping animals, police said.

Police said the accused had boarded the same bus from Jammu after receiving a tip-off about the trader’s cash movement from Parvez who conducted a recce near the shop where Lal worked - one of the famous ones in the area.

Teams are looking for Parvez, police said.