5 held in robbery link, shot by Ghaziabad cops, families claim ‘fake case’

Wife of two of the accused alleged that the police had taken their husbands from their homes on the night of August 10 and staged a fake arrest and shot them.

The Ghaziabad police arrested five suspected robbers in the Niwari and Bhojpur areas near Modinagar, during checks on the intervening nights of August 13 and 14, said officers. Four of the suspects were shot and injured in retaliatory fire by the police. However, the families of three suspects have alleged that the arrests and the shootout were staged, claiming that the police had picked up the men from their homes in Meerut three days prior.

The Ghaziabad police on late Tuesday night allegedly opened retaliatory fire and injured four of five suspected robbers. (HT Photo)

The police identified the arrested suspects as Lucky Pal, 22, Golu Yadav, 24, Neeraj Pal, 32, Inder Lal, 26, and Deepak Yadav, 26, all residents of Meerut. According to the police, the gang was allegedly involved in multiple incidents of chain snatchings, including four in Ghaziabad and three in Meerut during the Kanwar Yatra season.

“Two cases of snatching by bike-borne robbers with women were registered at Niwari police station on August 3 and 4, while one similar case was registered on August 1 at Bhojpur police station. Another robbery-attempt case was registered at Bhojpur police station on August 2. During the investigation, we came to know that suspects had performed three similar cases of snatching in nearby Meerut during the Kanwar Yatra period,” said Surendra Nath Tiwari, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of the rural zone, Ghaziabad.

The arrests occurred during late-night police checks. A SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team, along with officers from the Bhojpur police station, attempted to stop three suspects on a bike near Fazalgarh. The suspects reportedly did not stop and instead opened fire, prompting the police to return fire. “Lucky and Golu sustained a bullet injury in the leg and got injured. Further late at night, the SWAT team and police team from Niwari station were conducting checks near Patla when two suspects on a bike tried to flee and opened fire at the police team. The police opened retaliatory fire in return and two suspects sustained a bullet injury each. They were identified as Neeraj Pal and Inder Lal. All four injured were taken to hospital for treatment,” DCP Tiwari added.

Hours before the Ghaziabad police’s press briefing on Wednesday regarding the arrests, a video surfaced on social media featuring two women who identified themselves as the wives of Lucky and Golu. They alleged that the police had taken their husbands from their homes on the night of August 10 and staged a fake arrest and shot them.

Disha Pal, wife of suspect Lucky Pal, told HT, “A police team comprising of 10-12 men in civil dress came to our house in Shatabdi Nagar, Meerut, on the night of August 10. They had come in private vehicles and these were parked outside the colony. They took away my husband and also my mobile phones so that I could not call anyone for help. They told me that they were from Loni police station, Ghaziabad. The next day we searched them in Loni and found through our sources that the team was from Niwari police station.”

“When Golu’s wife and I inquired about our husbands, the cop drove us away. The police later staged a fake shoot-out case of my husband and Golu,” Disha added.

Meanwhile, Payal Yadav, wife of suspect Golu Yadav, recounted a similar incident. “They did not enter our house straightaway but came through our neighbourhood houses. They entered my house and hurled verbal abuses at me, and several of them nabbed my husband who was sleeping. I, along with Disha, spotted the same officer at Niwari police station. My husband works as an electrician with his elder brother, Deepak Yadav. Deepak was also picked up later by the police. Both Deepak and Golu, along with their friends, had gone to attend Kanwar Yatra in Haridwar and returned on August 2,” Payal added.

Their families told HT that they will take recourse to legal remedy and are trying to procure CCTV footages from cameras near to their homes to establish that they accused were taken away.

In response to the allegations, DCP Tiwari dismissed the claims as attempts by the families to shield the suspects. “The suspects were identified through CCTV footage and have been involved in snatchings in the past as well. The claims made by their families were incorrect and the suspects were traced by police teams during late-night checks on August 13/14,” he said.