Lift and loot: Gang involved in 50 robberies busted

The police said that the gang members were from Jaipur and were involved in highway robberies in Delhi, Gurugram and Rajasthan. They were previously arrested in Jaipur in 2019 and were out on bail. Three members of the gang were arrested early on Monday morning, while the police are tracking the fourth member of the group

A four-member gang that allegedly robbed around 50 people after offering shared rides in cabs on the Delhi-Jaipur highway (National Highway-48) over the past six months was busted, the police said on Monday.

The police said they zeroed in on the gang using technical and human surveillance. (Sourced)

The police said that the gang members were from Jaipur and were involved in highway robberies in Delhi, Gurugram and Rajasthan. They were previously arrested in Jaipur in 2019 and were out on bail. Three members of the gang were arrested early on Monday morning, while the police are tracking the fourth member of the group.

According to the police, the gang offered to drop people waiting for public transport at major intersections on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, such as the Iffco Chowk, Shankar Chowk, Rajeev Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk, at cheap prices. When the commuters boarded the vehicle, the gang members would assault them, rob them of their valuables and force them to share their ATM codes to withdraw cash.

The police said that their crime teams used technical surveillance to arrest the suspects. The police also seized a car that was allegedly used in the crimes.

Preet Pal Sangwan, the assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that the suspects were arrested from Bawal in Rewari. “They were involved in highway robberies in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana. They used to target victims who used to wear gold chains and wristwatches. They revealed that they targeted ‘rich’ executives looking for lifts. They used to travel to Gurugram and offer lifts from spots close to corporate spaces on Sohna Road, Udyog Vihar, Sector 17/18, Iffco Chowk and Rajeev Chowk,” he said.

Sangwan said they received several complaints of lift-and-loot incidents in which a Brezza car was involved. They said that it took a week of rigorous technical and human surveillance to identify the suspects. The suspects were identified as Manoj alias Monu (27), Surender Kumar (35), and Naresh Kumar (32) of Jaipur in Rajasthan. They lived at a rented accommodation in Bawal, the police said.

“This gang was active since 2016 and they used to change places after a few robberies. They targeted different routes in Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The CIA-17 team, led by Narender Chauhan, started rigorous technical exercises and reconstructed the sequence of events right from the start until the victim was let go by the assailants. While retracing the past incidents, the team picked up several vital clues, both technical and human,” he said.

Sangwan said that with the arrest of this group, a gang responsible for a majority of loot-and-lift crimes since the last year was busted. However, the police said they are suspecting the involvement of similar gangs from Nuh, who are also operating on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

The modus operandi of all the gangs are similar, due to which it is hard to zero in on the total number. They offer victims shared rides at night or early in the morning, assault and rob them. In the present case, the gang mainly operated from the three locations on a 10-kilometre stretch of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, the police said.

The police are compiling details of cases lodged at various police stations across the city and contacting victims to identify the suspects.