How the Delhi cops who carried out the Ghaziabad gold loot were netted

The Ghaziabad police got main leads about the robbery suspects based on the victims’ recollection of the incident, as the two accused police officers had used ‘police lingo’ during the incident.

Initially, it was suspected that the two men in uniform were robbers from gangs in western Uttar Pradesh but their conversation with the victim led police to the conclusion that they were policemen.

“During their conversation with Rahul Jain, the Mumbai based jewellery firm’s employee who was thrashed, they hurled abuses and repeatedly spoke of gunning him down in ‘half counter.’ It is a common terminology used by police. It means that a person will be injured and not get killed during the police action. Specifically, it means that a person will be shot in the leg. The language used by the two confirmed that the two were police,” an investigator said.

Two assistant sub-inspectors of the Delhi Police had executed a heist and made off with nine kilograms of gold on March 18 in Ghaziabad.

Senior police officials said cracking the case was a major challenge. Four teams of police, with the help of crime branch officers from Bulandshahr, cracked the case in 12 days.

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The accused ASIs, Satendra Singh and Bhrampal Singh, were arrested by Ghaziabad police on Thursday along with their two accomplices — Ravi Kashyap alias Durga Prasad and Shailendra Yadav.

The police on Thursday recovered nearly six kilograms of gold worth Rs2 crore from their possession.

“The major work was done through surveillance methods and gathering local intelligence. The informers from Meerut’s jewellers’ market also helped crack the case,” Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city), said.

While Jain was being thrashed by the two men in uniform, he had dialled the number of his employer in Mumbai and wanted the two men in uniform to speak to his boss about the genuineness of the gold he was carrying. Until that point, Jain was made to understand that it was a police check and the men in uniform were trying to ascertain if the gold was being carried with documents or if it was being smuggled.

“After Jain dialled the number, he was slapped by one of the men in uniform and his phone fell down. The call did not get disconnected and got recorded in the recorder app. After listening to the recorded conversation, we came to the conclusion that the man was from western UP as he spoke in the same dialect,” the officer said.

The police scanned nearly 15 lakh call records from Delhi to Meerut to get clues about the robbers. The first lead was the mobile number used by Yadav.

Police said Yadav was using a different mobile phone number and called the two accused ASIs several times. This gave substantial leads to police teams. Yadav was questioned and the police trailed the two ASIs.

During repeated conversations with the victims, the Ghaziabad police also got prepared sketches of the four suspects.

Police said that after allegedly committing the robbery, the two ASIs went to their official accommodation in Delhi and shifted the robbed gold the next day to Bhrampal’s native place at Bhatona village in Bulandshahr district.

At Bhatona, the gold was stocked in the Zen car that was used in the robbery. The car was parked at the ‘gher’ (open area used for sitting and holding meetings) of Bhrampal’s house, the police said. The police also recovered the Zen car that was stolen from Sarita Vihar of Delhi in December 2013.