Three persons have been arrested for allegedly fleeing with a locker containing over ₹19 lakh from a pharmacy in central Delhi’s Paharganj in the early hours of November 27, the police said on Thursday.
DCP (Central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa said that the accused were identified as Nurul Hasan (19), Salman (20) and Raman Bhatia (37). Raman works as a delivery boy with a pharmacy company and had delivered medicines at the pharmacy where the accused committed the burglary. The police received a complaint from owner of the pharmacy, Mrinal Shekhar, about the incident.
CCTV footage of the spot was scanned. With the help of technical and local intelligence, the police zeroed in on Nurul on Wednesday after which he was arrested. At his instance, Raman and Salman were arrested from Shahdara’s Bhola Nath Nagar.
During interrogation, the accused said Raman was aware of the cash kept in the locker as he had delivered medicines at the shop. “Raman also runs a gym near his house. He had been incurring losses. Salman runs a barber shop and used to go to Raman’s gym. They hatched the plan and roped in scrap dealer Nurul and vegetable vendor Rajeev,” Mr. Randhawa said. They had conducted a recce a few days before the burglary.
The accused were aware that there would be huge amount of cash in the locker at that time owing to three consecutive bank holidays. “They went to the pharmacy in an auto. Nurul went to the first floorand returned with the locker along with the cash in the drawer, while the others kept a watch downstairs,” Mr. Randhawa said.
They broke the locker and distributed the money among themselves. The police have recovered ₹7.3 lakh cash, and a bike and a phone purchased with the stolen money have been seized.