Two men arrested for robbery in southwest Delhi

The arrested men and two associates, who are still on the run, robbed the man of cash and his wife of the jewellery she was wearing at the time of the crime, which took place on April 3.

The Delhi Police’s crime branch on Wednesday said they arrested two members of the Kala Jatheri and Rishi Surakhpuria gangs for robbing an alleged bootlegger’s home in south-west Delhi’s Dabri because he refused to pay them ₹50 lakh as “protection money”.

The men also fired three rounds — two inside the house and another on the street, the police said. (HT File)

The arrested men and two associates, who are still on the run, robbed the man of cash and his wife of the jewellery she was wearing at the time of the crime, which took place on April 3.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Rohit Meena said that at around 11.45pm on April 3, four persons, three of them armed, entered the house of an alleged bootlegger, identified by his first name as one Amit, at Mahavir Enclave in Dabri, and demanded protection money (money paid in exchange for a promise to leave a person or their business unharmed).

When Amit refused to pay, they fired two rounds inside the house to intimidate him. Before leaving the house, they robbed him of cash and his wife of the jewellery she was wearing at gunpoint. Later, Amit filed a complaint of armed robbery and firing at the Dabri police station, said the DCP.

While the local police were investigating the case, the crime branch team received information that two suspects in the case, who are members of Kala Jatheri and Rishi Surakhpuria’s gang, would be coming to the Old Delhi railway station. Accordingly, the team laid a trap and arrested the suspects, identified as Mohammad Ladla, 24, and Pushpender Chauhan alias Laxman,23, on Tuesday morning, the police said.

During the interrogation, DCP Meena said, the arrested men disclosed that they committed the crime on the instructions of Surakhpuria, who is lodged in Tihar jail in connection with a case registered under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

The men said their associates Santosh alias Bawwa and Lavkush were also with them on April 3. Ladla and Laxman fled to West Bengal.

“They returned by a train on Tuesday morning and were caught at the station,” he said.