Their run-in with the law came to an end after police analysed an abandoned Nisaan Micra car belonging to the Indian Army captain and found fingerprints. (Express Photo/Praveen Khanna/File)
A Captain with the Indian Army, a head constable with the CISF, an armed guard of an ATM cash replenishing agency, a food delivery boy and a newspaper vendor shared the same fate when they were targeted by a gang between August 19 to 21 — who intercepted vehicles brandishing country-made pistols and knives in several parts of Dwarka, and robbed the owners.
The robbers managed to evade heavy police presence as they stole their victims’ mobile phones and cars, using multiple entry and exit points of the district to escape to west Delhi and find more victims.
Their run-in with the law came to an end after police analysed an abandoned Nisaan Micra car belonging to the Indian Army captain and found fingerprints. The prints were then matched with the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB), which has a database of 1.5 lakh, and police zeroed in on the accused.
“The fingerprints matched a pastry boy working at a luxury hotel in Dwarka. He had previously been involved in a criminal case and we tracked him down,” said DCP (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse. The police identified the gang leader as Sahil, who worked at Hotel Raddison, and his associates as Ashwani, Anil Kumar, Charanjeet , Arif and Chinku.
The special staff of the district was mobilised and sent on a physical verification, inspecting more than 800 houses. Following a tip-off, the police set up traps around Dwarka’s Sector 23 and when the accused were asked to surrender, they opened fire. Police retaliated and managed to overpower the accused.
The gang had first intercepted the Indian Army captain, posted in Siachen, and abducted him, driving his car around in Dwarka. The accused then took him to an ATM and made him withdraw money, following which they left with his car. “Unfortunately there was no police presence that time. But a police gypsy came where they dumped me and rescued me,” said Mukul Verma, the Army officer.
The accused withdrew Rs 40,000 at Mehram Nagar before robbing owners of a Ritz and a Swift Dzire. They later dumped the cars and scattered in different directions. When police investigated the case, they found that the accused attacked two CISF officers, a newspaper vendor and snatched a 12 bore gun from a security guard. The accused also stabbed a policeman multiple times in his left arm and robbed him of Rs 4,000.