Armed robbery: 3 held by Chembur police

The Chembur police have arrested three persons for armed robberies. The arrested were planning a robbery at Barclays Finance when they were arrested. They belong to a gang of thieves who would plan robberies but when spotted by the public or the police,would tear off their clothes and pretend to be robbery victims.

Last week,an informer tipped off the Chembur police officials about a robbery that was being plotted outside the Chembur MHADA Colony. “Our three teams reached the spot and spotted Nadim Aziz Merchant alias Nadim Chikna,Rizwan alias Kashmiri Papa Momin (26),Mohammed Ijaz Abdul Latif Sheikh (22) and two others. While we could nab Merchant,Momin and Sheikh,the others fled. We recovered a loaded revolver and a knife from them,” said Police Inspector Dilip Raut of Chembur police station.

The officials were momentarily stumped when the three accused began tearing their clothes and screaming that they had been robbed. “They began acting as if we had made a mistake and caught the victims rather than the perpetrators. After looking at their past crime records we learnt that this is their way of throwing off the police from their track. Every time they are arrested,they would break the windowpanes of a car to show that the robbers had broken it and run away. After distracting the police they would flee with the booty,” said Raut.