Noida: Five arrested for snatching car using a toy gun

According to police, Wani, a B-Tech second-year student, is the mastermind. He then ganged up with four accomplices and decided to rob commuters

Four days after a 50-year-old Indirapuram resident was robbed of his Hyundai i-20 car in Noida’s Sector 62, police on Friday arrested five persons, including a BTech student, from Sector 57 in the case. Apart from the stolen car, police have recovered two stolen motorcycles, a knife, five mobile phones and a toy gun that was used in the crime.

Police said that the suspects were planning to escape to Rajasthan to sell the car. (Sunil Ghosh/HT photo)

Police said all the suspects are residents of Delhi. The suspects were identified as Kartik Wani, 22, a resident of Mayur Vihar Phase 3; Vikas, 20, a resident of Pandav Nagar; Shivam Valmiki, 30, from Kalyanpuri; Yuvraj Khatri, 24, from Shakarpur; and Abhishek Sharma, 22, from Geeta Colony.

According to police, Wani, a B-Tech second-year student, is the mastermind. He had invested ₹8 lakh in a private firm and lost the money. He then ganged up with four accomplices and decided to rob commuters, said police.

The incident took place on the night of September 20 when victim Vilas Nirmal, a resident of Shakti Khand in Indirapuram, was returning home from his office in Noida’s Sector 62. “When I reached near D-Park in Sector 62, five persons on two motorcycles signalled me and said that the car’s bumper had fallen. As soon as I stopped the car to check it, they held me at gunpoint and snatched the vehicle,” he said.

The suspects also took away ₹11,000 in cash and Nirmal’s mobile phone. Nirmal, a driver with a private firm, said he had bought the car last year.

A case was registered against unknown persons under Section 392 (robbery) of IPC at Sector 58 police station on September 20.

“We scanned footage from over 250 CCTV cameras and identified the suspects. Today we got information that the suspects were moving in the stolen car near Sector 57 in Noida. A police team reached the spot and arrested them,” said Rajesh S, deputy commissioner of police, Noida.

Police said that the suspects were planning to escape to Rajasthan to sell the car.

Police recovered a toy gun that was actually a pistol-shaped cigarette lighter and an air gun from their possession. The DCP said that the suspects had used these two guns to threaten the victim. Based on their interrogation details, police conducted a search at their hideout and recovered two stolen motorcycles used in the crime.

“Wani contacted Khatri, who ran a mobile repairing shop, and they first started snatching mobile phones. Wani is also an expert in unlocking a smart phone. On September 20, they came to Sector 62, and tried to first stop a Hyundai i-10 car saying that the car’s bumper had fallen. But that car sped away. The suspects played the same trick and Nirmal was trapped. They snatched the car and fled to Delhi,” said Kumar Ranvijay Singh, additional DCP, Noida.

The suspects were produced in a local court that sent them to judicial custody.