Cash van guard with rifle robbed at knifepoint in Delhi’s Dwarka, Rs 80 lakh cash gone

Countering the adage that you should never bring a knife to a gunfight, two men armed with only knives managed to abduct and then rob Rs 80 lakh from a gunman guarding a cash van in southwest Delhi on Thursday.

The incident took place in Dwarka’s Sector 6 when the two custodians of the cash van had gone to refill an ATM. Two knife-wielding robbers overpowered the van’s security guard, who was carrying a loaded rifle, got in the van and forced the driver to take them to an isolated spot before assaulting them and running off with the van’s cash box containing Rs 80 lakh, the police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse said that a case of abduction and robbery has been registered at the Dwarka South police station and teams have been formed to catch the suspects and recover the money. Investigating officials said they were suspecting the involvement of an “insider” in the ATM replenishment company and were also probing if the armed guard and the driver were involved in the robbery.

“The guard was carrying a loaded rifle but did not fire (at the robbers) despite the fact that there were just two robbers, armed with only knives. The gunman has not been able to give a satisfactory reply as to why he did not use the weapon despite having authority to fire in such emergency situations. Neither the gunman nor the driver raised any alarm when they were accosted,” said an investigator, who did not wish to be identified.

“We are probing the case from all possible angles,” DCP Alphonse said, adding that the police have not given a clean chit to the armed guard, Jai Kant Mishra, driver Dheeraj, or the two custodians of the cash van — Narender and Vikas.

According to the DCP, the van left the cash replenishment company’s office in west Delhi early in the morning to refill cash at various ATMs in west and southwest Delhi. The four occupants of the cash van refilled cash in four ATMs in Naraina and Hari Nagar areas in west Delhi.

When the van stopped outside a hospital in Dwarka Sector 6 at 1pm and the two custodians went to refill cash in an ATM located in the hospital premises, the guard and the driver stayed back in the van.

In their police statement, the guard and the driver said that two robbers accosted them in the van after threatening them with knives. They said that the robbers had threatened to kill them if they made any attempts to raise an alarm. Then they made Dheeraj drive the van around a kilometre-and-a-half to an isolated stretch in Dwarka’s Sector 11.

There, the robbers took out the cash box and fled, abandoning the van and its two occupants.

During this time, Narender and Vikas informed the company that they found the cash van missing when they returned after refilling money. The company informed the police and around 2pm, the van with Dheeraj and Mishra inside was located in Dwarka Sector 11, the officer added.