Ghaziabad: Man reports theft of ₹22 lakh in Feb, police recover ₹1.97 cr from three suspects

The police said there were various discrepancies in the complainant Vikas Jain’s statement and they are looking into this. When confronted with the huge difference in the amount reported stolen and recovered, he could not give police a satisfactory reply

The Ghaziabad police on Thursday arrested three persons and recovered about ₹1.97 crore that they allegedly stole from an office in Ghaziabad’s Ajnara Market in Crossings Republik, but what baffled the police about the recovery was that the owner of the office had stated in his complaint that only ₹22 lakh cash was stolen from his office last month.

The suspects in police custody on Thursday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The police said there were various discrepancies in the complainant Vikas Jain’s statement and they are looking into this. When confronted with the huge difference in the amount reported stolen and recovered, he could not give police a satisfactory reply, investigators said.

The police identified the arrested as Atul Pandey, 55, Arun Kumar, 36, and Nitin Kumar, 37 and said on February 9, the police control room van was out patrolling when it received an alert from locals and shopkeepers in Ajnara Market in Crossings Republik that an office there was left open and there was a bag containing a lot of cash inside.The PCR van rushed to the spot and found the office open and a bag with ₹12.9 lakh inside.

Based on Jain’s complaint, an FIR was registered under Indian Penal Code Section 380 (theft) at Crossings Republik police station.

Regarding the delay in lodging a complaint, Jain, a resident of Gautam Budh Nagar, told police that he was held up because his mother was unwell and admitted to a hospital in Mawana, Meerut.

“We formed teams and after scanning CCTV footage from the market, we found that the theft actually took place around 2pm on February 7. For two days, the office lay open with cash inside, till shopkeepers alerted police on February 9,” DCP Yadav said.

The police said on Thursday, they arrested the three suspects and recovered about ₹1.97 crore cash from them.

The DCP said suspects Atul Pandey was Jain’s driver while Arun Kumar was his cook.

Yadav said the two got prepared duplicate keys of the office/flat and roped in Pandey’s son-in-law Bunty Kumar and his friend Sunil Kumar to carry out the theft on February 7.

“They took away cash from Jain’s office and kept about ₹1.97 crore at the Muradnagar house of their friend, Nitin Kumar. Both Bunty and Sunil are on the run and the three arrested suspects have told us there was about ₹2.8 crore kept in the office, and, the rest of the cash was with Bunty and Sunil. We will arrest them soon,” Yadav said.

Regarding the difference in the amount reported stolen and recovered, the DCP said, “Complainant Jain told us that the money belongs to his business but he was not able to justify the lesser amount mentioned in his complaint. We will inform the income tax department about the unaccounted cash. The recovered cash will be submitted before the court.”

.