At 10.45 pm on July 11, a few employees of a transport company office in Kishan Ganj were at work when 7-8 men armed with guns and knives barged into the premises. While some surrounded the staff, others snatched the key to the office safe and robbed the cash in the locker. The locker contained cash transactions that the business would collect over a few days before transferring them to higher officials in the company. Police were informed that the accused had stolen almost Rs 3.5 crore. It turned out that the theft was an inside job, allegedly hatched by two men who had a score to settle with the company — Upender Kumar, 36, who used to work as a truck driver, and Kailash Chauhan, 48, who works as a car driver for the company — said police. The two allegedly held a grudge against their employers for not giving them increments in their salaries and for behaving rudely. How did police crack the case? First, teams from Gulabi Bagh and Sarai Rohilla police stations and the North District Special Staff analysed and checked dossiers and bail data to look into recently released convicts who had previously committed robberies over Rs 1 crore. However, they drew a blank. “The employers had also not submitted any employee verification forms to the local police, which made the search all the more difficult,” said DCP (North) Manoj Kumar Meena. Police then analysed CCTV footage to determine possible routes the men had taken to arrive and leave from the spot. Police identified two cars linked to a person named Pramod Tomar (33). His phone records, police noted, showed he was in Kishan Ganj during the time of the robbery. However, his current location was in Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho, from where he was arrested. During questioning, police said Tomar revealed the names of his accomplices who had carried out the heist based on information provided to them by Upender and Kailash. Tomar told police that Kailash and Upender allegedly knew one of the accused, Ankush (30). Upender had recently quit his job and hatched the plan with Kailash to rob the company using their friends’ help. Kailash allegedly kept an eye out for where the cash would be stored. “They decided to rob the place at night and in a group because they knew that there would be several employees still in the office. They feared retaliation from the employees, so they decided to carry arms,” said a police source. “After formulating the plan with Kailash and Upendra, Ankush approached Pramod, who in turn approached the other accused; they managed to round up more men,” said the source. After carrying out the robbery, they fled to a hotel on the Delhi-Ghaziabad border and then to a flat in Nand Nagri, where the loot was divided. After receiving their shares, they went their separate ways. Police teams were then sent to Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, where the rest of the accused were in hiding. They subsequently arrested five men — Ankush, Kailash, Upender, Shanu and Faisal. Police also managed to recover Rs 1.15 crore in cash. However, they are yet to recover the weapons used in the crime. “We are positive we will recover the rest of the money and arrest the remaining accused in the coming days,” said DCP Meena.
