Four held for robbing ₹23 lakh from electronics showroom in Ghaziabad

Nipun Agarwal, deputy commissioner of police, Ghaziabad (city), said that the complainant had earlier reported that ₹30 lakh cash was missing after the robbery, however, it was later found that ₹23.17 lakh was missing

Ghaziabad police on Wednesday arrested four suspects for allegedly robbing an electronics showroom in New Arya Nagar of ₹23 lakh cash on April 23, officials said on Thursday. Police said an employee of the showroom was allegedly involved in the heist.

The suspects in custody. (Sakib Ali/ HT)

The robbery incident took place at around 10pm on Sunday. Two armed suspects, wearing helmets and masks, had robbed the cash by holding hostage store manager Yogesh Sharma and a staffer Santosh Nepali at gunpoint, police said. They decamped with all the cash kept in the showroom vault, police added.

Nipun Agarwal, deputy commissioner of police, Ghaziabad (city), said that the complainant had earlier reported that ₹30 lakh cash was missing after the robbery, however, it was later found that ₹23.17 lakh was missing.

“Harsimran Singh Saluja, owner of Overseas Pvt Ltd, who has several electronic goods showrooms across Ghaziabad and is a resident of Raj Nagar, filed a complaint at the Sihani Gate police station. An FIR was registered under Section 392 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and eight teams were deployed to nab the robbers” DCP Agarwal said.

The DCP added that police recovered ₹23 lakh from the possession of the suspects. “Around ₹17,000 was used by the suspects to procure four kilograms of marijuana, which they planned to sell at a higher price”, he said.

“Police recovered ₹5 lakh cash and 1.5kg marijuana from Nepali; ₹9 lakh cash, 1.2kg marijuana, one country-made pistol from Prince; ₹8 lakh cash, 1.3kg marijuana and one country-made pistol from Akash and ₹1 lakh cash from Tinku. We have also recovered the motorcycle used by the suspects in the robbery,” said the DCP.

DCP Agarwal added that during their interrogation, Nepali revealed that the gang had been planning the robbery for the last couple of months.

“Nepali, who got a salary of ₹10,000 per month, had hatched the plan with his friends to rob the showroom. Meanwhile, Akash had recently bought a house in Nandgram on a ₹10 lakh loan, and he wanted to pay off the instalments”, the DCP said.

The officer added that the suspects had tried to rob the showroom on Saturday as well.

“However, the suspects were unable to open the latch of the shutters and their plan failed. On Sunday, Nepali deliberately left the latch open while counting the cash with the manager of the store. Later, Akash and Prince barged in, holding Nepali at gunpoint and forced the manager to hand over the cash to them,” said DCP Agarwal.

The DCP further said, “Nepali did not run away and continued to act innocent in front of the police and the showroom owner. After the robbery, the suspects fled in a black bike. During our investigation, it was found they had modified the look of the bike in order to evade the police”.

The four suspects were produced before a court and sent to judicial custody on Thursday, police added.