Police arrest two college students for trying to rob senior citizen with fake pistols

Two students of private colleges in Greater Noida were nabbed—thanks to the presence of mind and courage showed by passersby in Noida’s Sector 37 on Saturday night—for their alleged involvement in an unsuccessful attempt to rob a 90-year-old using a toy revolver, an air pistol and a countrymade pistol.

In their attempt to loot the senior citizen, the four accused ended up stealing valuables and vehicles from two more people.

The accused have been identified as Saif (22) alias Saifu alias Sahab, a native of Bhagalpur in Bihar, Minhaz (23), a native of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Nitin Pawar and Nidhi Rathod.

The two arrested accused, Saif and Minhaz, have been booked on counts of attempt to loot. The other two accomplices are absconding, the police said, adding that efforts are on to nab them.

According to the police, the incident took place at 10.45pm on Saturday when Brigadier (retd) Raghuvir (90), a resident of Sector 37, returned home from a party with his driver, and found the group waiting outside his house in a white Honda City car, police said.

“Raghuvir saw Saif and Nitin standing outside his house. When he enquired why they were there, the duo said that they are from a TV dish company and were there to increase the number of channels the ex-armyman gets on his TV. When the victim denied making any such request, the two men drew out their weapons, and forcibly entered his house. They took his wallet and mobile, and tried to steal the car as well by threatening driver Rampal Singh, but failed. They then took the driver’s mobile phone and wallet,” superintendent of police (city) AK Singh said.

Singh added that all this while Minhaz and Nidhi were waiting in the car.

When Raghuvir and his driver Rampal raised the alarm, the youngsters panicked and started running.

In their haste, Nitin left with Nidhi in the car leaving Saif and Minhaz stranded on the road, police said.

“To get away, Saif asked for a lift and was helped by Wing Commander (retd) Rajiv Sharma, who was passing by. As soon as Saif sat in the car, he drew out his pistol and took Sharma’s wallet and phone. When Sharma tried to overpower Saif, the car hit a tree,” Singh said, adding that it was then that a motorcycle-borne passerby Varun Dabar noticed the commotion and intervened.

“Dabar tried to confront the duo on his bike but the latter pulled out a pistol and sped away on his bike only to meet with an accident. With the bike’s handle now twisted, the duo could not run away and was nabbed by the locals who called the police,” Singh said.

All the firearms, a knife, the three stolen mobile phones, a stolen car, motorcycle and two wallets, were recovered from the arrested accused, police said, adding that, prima facie, it appears the students were trying to steal money for their recreational needs.

“Looking at the modus operandi, it seems that they were trying to fulfil their recreational needs by procuring money through such acts. The two other will also be nabbed soon,” Singh said.

According to police, the two accused have claimed that they are pursuing engineering from different private colleges of Greater Noida.

“Saif said he is a student of computer science at a college in Greater Noida, while Minhaz said that he is a BTech third year student from another college. It has come to light that Nitin is the mastermind and runs a BPO in Sector 15. They have also claimed that their fourth accomplice Nidhi is a student of a reputed private university. However, we are yet to verify their claims from the educational institutions,” Singh said.