Rs 51 lakh, gold vanishes from Delhi Police’s high-security vault — thief turns out to be one of their own

Khurshid was transferred to the Northeast Delhi district after he put in a request to leave the Special Cell, added police.

When they questioned the officer about the theft, police said it came to light that he had allegedly executed a similar heist at the malkhana about 1.5 months ago, when he was deployed as an assistant to the malkhana-in-charge.

The missing amount remained undetected till the latest theft took place, a police officer said.

Police have not revealed details about the amount stolen the first time.

Additional CP (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwaha said, “Investigation revealed that Khurshid entered the premises in the early hours of Saturday and went out with the proceeds. The case property has been recovered and HC Khurshid is being interrogated.”

An FIR was lodged on May 31, and the case is being investigated by the Special Cell, police said. 3. The accused is in remand and is being questioned.

Sequence of events

The Special Cell office shifted to Sadiq Nagar last November, with the old compound set to go under major upgrades. However, the store room, which has a lot of sensitive material pertaining to critical cases, continues to be in the old Lodhi Road compound.

The malkhana is under high security watch. There is a deployment of Nagaland Police personnel, who have their office there.

There is a duty officer who checks the details of everyone who enters the complex. Another duty officer checks entrants for the final time before they enter the high-security area.

A police source said that as Khurshid worked there earlier, he knew the ins and outs of the malkhana. Besides, the security personnel deployed there knew him too. “They also weren’t aware that he was up for a transfer,” the source said.

Using this information to his advantage, police said Khurshid entered the premises at 4 am on Saturday. He was in the store room for around half an hour. At 4.30 am, he came out with two boxes of gold jewellery and a bag full of money. The duty officer was allegedly asleep, a police officer said.

Khurshid, however, made the mistake of leaving the door open. The duty officer noticed this when he woke up, and the security staff rushed to check the room and CCTV cameras.

“As he was posted in the malkhana earlier, he made a duplicate set of keys to enter the room. Because of that, there were no signs or sounds of entry. He entered, wearing a helmet and gloves to hide his identity, and then came out. However, he left the door open, which started our investigation,” a police officer with the elite unit of Delhi Police said.

Khurshid was finally arrested from his home in Northeast Delhi at 9 am on Saturday, after CCTV footage from the nearby area showed him carrying the important case evidence found missing from the malkhana, police said.

According to police, Khurshid was in debt after he lost a huge amount of money in online gambling. So, he carried out the first heist, police claimed.

He then put in a transfer request about a month ago, as he wanted to get out of the Special Cell unit before he was caught for the previous robbery.

However, his debts kept piling, which prompted him to execute another robbery, police claimed.