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Two lift-and-loot gangs busted, six arrested
Gurugram The police on Wednesday arrested six persons, allegedly belonging two gangs of robbers, who were involved in more than 40 cases of lift-and-loot, including
Gurugram The police on Wednesday arrested six persons, allegedly belonging two gangs of robbers, who were involved in more than 40 cases of lift-and-loot, including five in Uttar Pradesh.
The police said these gang members robbed working professionals, carrying laptop bags, at Iffco Chowk, Signature Towers and Rajiv Chowk junctions, along the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, at night on the pretext of offering them a lift.
Preet Pal Sangwan, the assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that last month, they received several complaints of lift-and-loot and crime teams were assigned the cases. “We had deployed our team members, posing as cab drivers, at Iffco Chowk and Rajiv Chowk. We had also deployed police personnel in private cabs to monitor the movement of suspects,” he said.
Those arrested from Rajiv Chowk on Wednesday night were identified as Amit Kumar (21), of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh and Anil Kumar (24) of Hathras in Uttar Pradesh. The police said the duo belonged to the same gang.
Members of the other gang, which offered lifts from Iffco Chowk, were identified as Govind Singh, Rahul Kumar, Ajay Kumar and Vinod Singh. They were arrested in the wee hours of Thursday from the Sector 31 flyover.
Sangwan said that during questioning, members of both the gangs confessed to their involvement in robberies. They used to target working professionals as they carry ATM cards and mostly, have savings in their bank account, the police said.
“The suspects said they only targeted working professionals who were formally dressed and carried laptop bags. They used to approach them, offer them a lift, attack them and rob them,” he said.
Professionals working in hundreds of offices along the expressway rely on shared cabs to return home to Delhi and neighbouring areas after work. Police said that the suspects were involved in more than 40 cases in Gurugram, Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad.
The kingpin of the second gang — Rahul Kumar — is a history-sheeter who has been involved in heinous crimes and lodged in an observation home for a year. He was released after the one-year sentence, as he was a juvenile then, the police said.
“During questioning, they revealed that Vinod, who was a helper with a logistics company, was unable to pay his house rent and had shared his problem with his friends, following which they planned to rob people and collect money for his rent,” said Sangwan.
All members, barring Vinod, who was arrested for the first time, were taken on three-day police remand. There are several cases against the suspects at police stations in Uttar Pradesh, Noida, Delhi, Rewari, Narnaul and Gurugram.
The police said they have identified four more accomplices of the robbers and are using technical surveillance to track them.
The police said the suspects were arrested when they were on their way to target a person at Iffco Chowk and Rajiv Chowk. As soon as they offered a lift to an automobile engineer, the police nabbed them from the Sector 31 flyover. The other gang had offered lift to a Delhi-based engineer and before they could flee the spot, the crime teams intercepted their car and rescued the victim.
Sangwan said that based on information received from their informants, they had laid a trap on the road leading to Iffco Chowk and Rajiv Chowk. “We have recovered some of the robbed articles and the car used in the crime, but the weapon(s) and other objects used in the crimes are yet to be recovered,” he said.
The police said the gang had zeroed in on the three spots on a seven-kilometre stretch of the expressway to look for targets. They mostly picked up their victims from Iffco Chowk, Signature Tower and Rajiv Chowk. The police said they have busted at least six lift-and-loot gangs between January and May, and at least 45 cases have been registered this year, so far, an increase from 60 cases registered in 2018.
The police said that since September 24, they have received at least six complaints from individuals working in multinational companies and automobile industries of Gurugram, and one case from Delhi. Since the suspects allegedly confessed to having been involved in around 40 incidents, including five in Noida and Ghaziabad, the police said that these would be the cases wherein the victims did not approach the police.
However, the case that caught the police’s attention was filed on September 28, when Santosh Kumar, an executive with a prominent automobile company, was robbed by people travelling in a taxi in which he was offered a lift from Iffco Chowk to his house in Uttar Nagar of Delhi, around 12.30am.
“I boarded the cab in which three people, including the driver, were already seated. When we reached Shankar Chowk, one of them hit me on the head and took my belongings, including mobile phone and wallet, which only had ₹100. I was let go at an isolated located near Sirhaul village,” said Kumar, adding that he was abused and his life threatened, as he did not have more money.
Sangwan said that since the incident was alarming, the police teams were pressed all its resources into action.
