Promotional SMS during robbery in Ghaziabad, lands gang of five in cop’s net

Police said they cracked the case with the help electronic surveillance when a pending promotional SMS which was delivered to the mobile phone of Sanjeev on the night of the incident helped them track the gang.

A promotional SMS on the mobile phone of the mastermind of a robbers’ gang landed five men in police net late on Tuesday night.

Ghaziabad India - November 21, 2018: Police arrested a gang of five robbers who fled with cash and equipment used for manufacturing perfumes from a unit in Bhojpur, in Ghaziabad, India on Wednesday (Sakib Ali /Hindustan Times)

According to police, the gang on November 3 had allegedly robbed a perfume factory in Bhojpur and had fled with cash and equipment used for manufacturing perfume.

Police identified the accused as Sanjeev Singh, who is the prime accused, Prashant Kumar, Ankit Kumar, Lokendra Chand and Vikas Pal, who formed a gang and allegedly performed the robbery at the unit.

Police said they cracked the case with the help electronic surveillance when a pending promotional SMS which was delivered to the mobile phone of Sanjeev on the night of the incident helped them track the gang.

“The prime accused had switched off his mobile during the incident but wanted to call up a transporter for carrying big brass vessels. During the robbery, around 12.30am on the night of the incident, Sanjeev switched on his mobile phone and soon received the pending SMS. When our teams scanned mobile numbers active in the area on the night of the incident through electronic surveillance, we were able to reach the gang members,” AK Maurya, superintendent of police (rural), said.

Three other members of the gang are on the run. Police said Sanjeev had taken away ₹39,000 cash and other equipment, valued around ₹5 lakh, used for manufacturing perfume.

“They had dismantled the smaller equipment but could not carry the bigger brass vessels used for distillation process for manufacturing perfume,” Maurya added.

Police said the arrested accused work at a unit manufacturing ethanol and stay nearly 8-9km away from the perfume unit which was targeted. During the incident, the gang members held the staff in the perfume factory at gunpoint and also injured several workers when they tried to resist.

They were, however, were not able to take away 39 brass vessels as they could not find any mode of transporting the bigger items.

Police said that a case of robbery was initially lodged at Bhojpur and the IPC Section 395 (dacoity) will now be added to the case.