5 Mewati youths held for highway truck robberies

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police arrested five Mewati youth for allegedly committing a series of highway robberies from southeast Delhi on Friday.

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police arrested five Mewati youth for allegedly committing a series of highway robberies from southeast Delhi on Friday.

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The police have arrested Shakeel, 22, Umardeen, 20, Yunus, 21 (all residents of Mewat in Haryana), Rakesh, 34 (from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan) and Munna Alam, 22 (from Kishanganj in Bihar).

The police said they had a unique way of committing robberies. "They would target truck drivers who stop at roadside eateries. One of the gang members would usually take up the job of a waiter at such joints and serve food mixed with sedatives to the truck drivers," said Arun Kampani, deputy commissioner of police (special cell).

"Later, they requested the driver to take their friend along, in their vehicles. The truck drivers usually obliged and shortly thereafter, when the sedatives kicked in, the gang members — armed with deadly weapons — overpowered them and threw them out of the vehicles," Kampani added.

Police claimed that the gang was allegedly involved in many cases of robbery and attempt to murder in various places in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The police recovered two country-made pistols, a car, R60,000 in cash and large quantities of sedatives from the accused.

"They were involved in highway robberies since 2006," Kampani added. According to police, other members of the gang used to follow ‘marked’ trucks and intercept them later. "They would throw the driver and conductor away from running trucks or kill them and flee with the robbed trucks, full of goods," he said.

While the stolen articles were sold at throwaway prices, the stolen truck was taken to

one Khalid, a resident of Mathura, who is in the transport business.