Trader staged‘gunpoint robbery’ in NE Delhi: Police

Delhi Police have revealed that a trader in northeast Delhi staged his own robbery, hiring two men to act as robbers. Five suspects have been arrested.

Three days after a trader in northeast Delhi’s Seelampur was allegedly robbed of ₹10.8 lakh at gunpoint, Delhi Police on Sunday said that the whole incident was in fact staged by the complainant himself. Police added that he hired two men to act as robbers and have arrested five suspects in the case.

Five people have been arrested in the case. (Representational image)

Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Joy Tirkey said that to ensure that the crime was executed to perfection, the complainant roped in three others — two who carried out the robbery and a third who guided them from a distance. The fifth suspect arrested in the case received a share of the robbed money, the officer said, adding that the ₹10.8 lakh was supposed to be delivered to a client of the complainant’s uncle.

“CCTV footage of the robbers helped us arrest them. They revealed the involvement of the complainant himself,” Tirkey said. Police also said that the two revealed that the money was to be divided among the suspects.

The police identified the complainant as Uruz Hasan, 22, who works for his uncle who is involved in manufacturing metal sheets. The alleged robbery happened around 12.30am on Thursday while Hasan was carrying a packet containing ₹10.8 lakh meant for the client.

In his complaint, Hasan said that two men carrying a gun intercepted him and robbed the money.

The police registered a robbery case and began checking CCTV footage. “We found footage in which a man was seen carrying a plastic packet similar to the one robbed from the complainant. We pursued more cameras to find him handing over the packet to someone else,” said the DCP.

The police were able to identify the two men in the footage as the alleged robbers — Akbar Ali and Zuber. They were arrested and later revealed of Hasan’s involvement, police said. Hasan was later arrested as well who then told police that he had roped in his cousin Zaid to help “guide” the robbery.

Zaid was the one who hired Ali and Zuber to carry out the “robbery”. The two men told police that they planned to make the entire incident look genuine.

DCP Tirkey said that on the night of the crime, Zaid allegedly followed Hasan and kept guiding the two “robbers” about the complainant’s movement. When the “right time” came, Zaid gave the signal to the Ali and Zuber who then approached Hasan and took the cash from him.

The police have recovered ₹9.02 lakh of the robbed money, some of which was allegedly deposited in a foreign account of a relative of one of the arrested suspects. The police also arrested a fifth suspect, 22-year-old Ansab, who also allegedly helped in planning the whole incident and got a share of the money.