Pickpockets to businessmen

They graduated from being small time pickpockets to snatchers to owners of a hotel in Paharganj and a cable television network. HT Correspondent reports.

They graduated from being small time pickpockets to snatchers to owners of a hotel in Paharganj and a cable television
network.

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Meet a gang of robbers who invested wisely what they looted and became businessmen.

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police have arrested a gang of robbers who invested their booty in a hotel in Paharganj and a cable television network in Nangloi, West Delhi.

The police said the gang was involved in several cases of robbery in the city. A team led by Inspector Richpal Singh under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police Jai Bhagwan busted the gang and arrested Chandra Bhan, Amit, Santosh Kumar and Chandra Mohan on Sunday night.

Two country-made guns and two motorcycles were seized from their possession.

The beginning

They had started as pickpockets. “They were initiated into the world of crime by Sanjay Chaudhary, a notorious pickpocket. Later they drifted from his gang. Chandra Bhan made a new gang and included some fresh members. He decided to move on from pick pocketing to robberies and started developing sources for getting information on people carrying large amounts of cash. On the basis of specific information, he and his gang members started committing robberies,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Neeraj Thakur.

How they worked

They followed their victim on two or three motorcycles. At an isolated spot, they stopped the victim and robbed him at gunpoint. In cases when the victim travelled by bus, the gang stopped the bus, forced the victim to get down from the bus and robbed him.

Booty well spent

According to the Crime Branch, the accused did not spend the money they looted but used it wisely.

“The accused disclosed that money looted in the crimes was invested by Chandra Bhan with a person known as Suresh Pehalwan, a resident of Nangloi, West Delhi, in running a cable network. Chandra Mohan used his share of the money to lease a hotel, Hotel Nandini Palace, on Arakasha Road in Paharganj,” said Thakur. “The hotel was being renovated for opening during the Navratra festival.”