Pharmacy robber used phone app to pay for knife he used, gets caught
The robbery took place in a market in Dwarka Sector 10 around 4am on 30 December 2019, while there was only one salesman in the pharmacy.
A robbery at a pharmacy in west Delhi’s Dwarka in the early hours of Monday was cracked after the investigators recovered the cover of a knife used in the crime, the police said on Wednesday.
The arrested suspect, Gaurav Kumar, turned out to be an employee of the same pharmacy, said Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka district). “He is also an accused in the murder of a married couple in 2010. He was released on bail in 2018 after spending eight years in jail,” Alphonse said.
The robbery took place in a market in Dwarka Sector 10 around 4am on Monday while there was only one salesman in the pharmacy. “His face covered with a towel and cap, Kumar posed as a customer. While the salesman was collecting medicines from the shelves, Kumar swiftly downed the shutters from inside. He then overpowered and bound the salesman’s hands, feet and mouth using cloth and rope, and made away with ₹75,000 cash and medicines worth ₹3,000,” Alphonse said.
Investigators began analysing footage from CCTV cameras in the market. “One footage showed Kumar taking out a knife and discarding its cover before entering the pharmacy,” he said.
Police searched for that cover and found it. “It had a barcode of a departmental store chain. We visited 21 outlets of that chain and finally found the store from where the knife was purchased. The store staff revealed that an online payment app was used to pay for the knife,” Alphonse said.
After that, investigators said it took them no time to figure the case out. “Once we got to know the phone number associated with the payment app, we caught the suspect before the end of the day,” he said.
Police said the knife used in the crime, the medicines and ₹65,000 of the cash stolen from the pharmacy were recovered from Kumar who belongs to Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, and currently lives in west Delhi’s Sagarpur. The police said he may have spent the remaining ₹10,000.
His interrogation reportedly revealed his alleged previous criminal involvement — the murder of a husband-wife couple during a robbery bid. “The couple had raised an alarm and to tried to resist Kumar and his associates when they broke into their Preet Vihar home to commit a robbery in 2010. The two men silenced the couple by strangling them to death,” said the investigator, claiming that he was quoting Kumar himself.
The police are yet to get more clarity on that case.
The DCP said Kumar holds a BSc degree in health science and health management. “After his release from jail on bail in 2018, he took up a job with a hospital’s pharmacy. On December 15, he was transferred to another pharmacy that he eventually robbed,” said the DCP.