Charge sheet against 11 in daring Delhi tunnel robbery

The crime branch of Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet against 11 individuals arrested in connection with a daylight robbery in Pragati Maidan tunnel. The suspects stayed in rented flats and stole motorcycles and arranged weapons to execute the robbery. The crime was captured on CCTV footage, and an accidental firing at one of the flats helped the police solve the case. The mastermind, Usman Ali, had lost his job and was in debt, and he planned to rob delivery agents transferring large amounts of cash.

The crime branch of Delhi Police on Saturday filed the charge sheet in a Delhi court against 11 people arrested in connection with the brazen daylight robbery inside the Pragati Maidan tunnel on June 24. The next date of hearing in the case is October 3, police said.

The suspects in custody. (HT File)

The 1417-page charge sheet details how the suspects stayed in two rented flats in Burari and conducted reconnaissance of agents collecting and transporting money to and from Chandni Chowk business hubs for nearly a fortnight. The accused stole two motorcycles and arranged arms and ammunition to execute the robbery, a senior crime branch officer said.

On June 24 around 3pm, four people on a bike intercepted a cab inside the tunnel and robbed two delivery agents travelling to Gurugram from near Red Fort — Patel Sajan Kumar and Jigar Patel — at gunpoint of their bag containing around ₹50 lakh, police officers aware of the development in the case said. They were going to deliver the cash to their employer’s friend.

The entire crime was captured on a CCTV camera and the footage was widely shared on social media.

A senior police officer associated with the case said that an accidental firing at one of the two flats which injured one of the suspects helped the police solve the case. “Had that firing incident not happened, identifying and nabbing them would not have been possible,” said the officer, requesting anonymity. The case was solved three days after the crime and seven people were arrested.

According to the police, the firing incident happened a day after the crime. It was not immediately clear which suspect was hit by the bullet but he was taken to a hospital by a few others, who told the hospital authorities that he was hit by a random bullet on a street. The hospital informed the police but the suspects had already fled by the time they could be interrogated, said the senior officer. Additionally, the version the suspects gave about being hit by a bullet did not corroborate.

“This increased our suspicion. Later, we came to know that the New Delhi and North district police were looking for the same people. Technical surveillance then led us to the flat,” he added.

The arrested suspects were identified as Usman Ali, 25, the mastermind, Anuj Mishra, 26, Kuldeep alias Lungad, 26, Irfan Ali, 22, Pradeep Sonu, 34, Amit Bala, 19, Vishak Kumar, 21. Their interrogation led to the arrest of Murli Turi alias Raju, 32, Anil Singh alias Choti, 38, Supreet Singh alias Hunny, 31, and Pawan Kumar, 34, over the next week. Apart from arresting 11 people and recovering over ₹25 lakh, the crime branch also apprehended a minor boy.

The police investigation report related to the juvenile was already filed before the Juvenile Justice Board, the officers said.

Crime branch officers said Usman Ali, who earlier worked as the delivery agent for an e-commerce site in the Chandni Chowk area knew that huge amounts of cash were regularly transferred to and from areas like Kucha Mahajani and Kucha Ghasiram. He had lost his job and was in debt of ₹13 lakh, due to betting.

“Usman planned to rob money from such delivery agents and roped in seasoned criminals like Pradeep, Kuldeep, and Anuj, who were previously involved in 37, 16, and 5 crimes, respectively. He also included others and they rented the flats in Burari to meet and plan the robbery,” a crime branch officer said.