Robber out on parole caught for stealing cop’s pistol

The three had planned to use the revolver to rob a Karol Bagh-based jeweller, but were caught before they could execute their plan, said Sanjay Bhatia, deputy commissioner of police (central district).

A man out on parole broke into a south Delhi house where five policemen lived and stole a service revolver and 10 bullets belonging to one of them, the police said on Sunday after arresting him and two of his suspected partners.

The police identified the suspects as Atul Bhardwaj and his associates Vipin and Vishal. (HT photo)

The three had planned to use the revolver to rob a Karol Bagh-based jeweller, but were caught before they could execute their plan, said Sanjay Bhatia, deputy commissioner of police (central district).

The police identified the suspects as Atul Bhardwaj and his associates Vipin and Vishal.

Bhardwaj was to return to jail on November 30 after a 45-day parole in a robbery case, for which he was imprisoned in September this year.

“On November 17, he broke into a rented home in south Delhi’s Kishangarh. At the time, he didn’t know that the house had been rented out to five policemen,” said the DCP. In a bag lying in the house was a service revolver and 10 cartridges belonging to a Delhi Police constable on security duty.

“Bhardwaj thought he could sell the revolver at a good price,” the officer said.

But later, he allegedly roped in two of his associates and planned to use the revolver to rob the jeweller.

The police, meanwhile, were hunting for the man who stole the police’s gun.

“On Friday night, we received a tip-off that the man who had stolen the police’s revolver would be visiting Karol Bagh to carry out a reconnaissance of a jeweller he planned to rob,” Bhatia said. The police laid a trap and nabbed him, and seized a country-made pistol and two bullets.

At his instance, his two associates were also arrested and the stolen revolver and the bullets recovered from them.