Police crack Greater Noida society heist, arrest 4 suspects after gunfight

The burglary incident took place on November 25, at Amrapali Leisure Valley residential society. The complainant, Shashi Bhushan Rai, was at work while his house was locked as other members of the family were out of station

The Gautam Budh Nagar police on Wednesday arrested four people who allegedly stole jewellery and cash worth around ₹1.5 crore from a housing society in Greater Noida West last month, police said on Thursday.

Police crack Greater Noida society heist, arrest 4 suspects after gunfight

While three suspects were injured and held after a gunfight in Greater Noida West’s Sector 4, the fourth suspect was held during a combing operation from a nearby checkpoint. The police have recovered goods worth ₹1 crore from the suspects, including an SUV, which was bought by them using the stolen jewellery.

The burglary incident took place on November 25, at Amrapali Leisure Valley residential society. The complainant, Shashi Bhushan Rai, was at work while his house was locked as other members of the family were out of station.

In the complaint, Rai, who is a financial officer with a Delhi-based media house, stated that miscreants took away the locker which contained jewellery worth around ₹1 crore, ₹40 lakh cash and the CCTV digital video recorder (DVR) that had recordings of the house. Police had registered a case under Section 380 (theft in house dwelling) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and began their investigation.

Police said that the four suspects are part of a gang of professional burglars who have previously committed various burglaries at locked houses and have several cases registered against them in nearby districts.

“During investigation, it was found that the burglary was committed by a professional gang of thieves who had entered the housing society by car and were well-dressed due to which the society guards did not question them while entering. The suspects had tracked the movement of a washerman inside the society and noticed that this particular flat was empty and zeroed in on it,” said SM Khan, additional deputy commissioner of police (Central Noida).

Police recovered two kilograms of silver jewellery, 500 grams of gold jewellery, ₹57,000 cash and a Mahindra XUV500 from the possession of the suspects.

The suspects have been identified as Rajan, a resident of Kushinagar, Rajeev Tomar and Bunty, both residents of Bulandshahr and Rahul Chauhan, a resident of Delhi. Three country-made pistols along with live cartridges were also recovered from the suspects, police added.

“Inter-state police departments were working to crack the case as the gang members were changing locations frequently. They visited Noida, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Lucknow, Sitapur, Gorakhpur and Kushinagar. They also travelled to Udaipur in Rajasthan and Ahmedabad in Gujarat in the last 18 days. We scanned over 700 CCTV footage to track the suspects,” said ADCP Khan.

ADCP Khan added that the majority of the stolen items have been recovered. “The suspects had pawned the jewellery at a local bank in Delhi and bought the second hand SUV car for ₹6 lakh. All the four suspects have cases registered against them in Dehradun, Bulandshahr and Gautam Budh Nagar. Suspect Chauhan was recently released from jail after spending 10 years behind the bars after being convicted in an acid attack case,” he said.

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