The police, Wednesday night, arrested five members of a gang allegedly involved in robbing people near the MG Road Metro station. The gang, which had allegedly robbed a Delhi resident of cash and other belongings on Tuesday night when he was walking towards the Metro station, was arrested from near Iffco Chowk. They were traced by the crime unit based on their call details and a tip-off.

The accused were identified as Aman Kumar Khosla, Hari Singh and Rohit Kumar of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, and Deepak and Karan of Uttar Pradesh. All five of them were living on rent in Kotla Mubarakpur area of Delhi ever since they moved to the National Capital Region, which was about a year ago.

The police said they used to work as daily wage earners in their neighbourhood in Delhi before turning to petty crime to make a quick buck.

Assistant commissioner of police (DLF) Karan Goyal said, during interrogation, the accused confessed to robbing many commuters and pedestrians on the stretch between Huda City Centre Metro station and MG Road Metro station in the past one year.

“The complainant, Jagdish Singh, a resident of Palam Extension, Sector 7, had stated that five people had intercepted him on Tuesday night when he was walking towards the Iffco Chowk Metro station. They thrashed him and dragged him to the road side where two of the accused pinned him down and stuffed a cloth in his mouth, threatening him with dire consequences if he raised an alarm,” Goyal said.

The accused snatched the victim’s wallet and a cellphone, two ATM cards, and Rs2,500 cash. They also coerced the victim into sharing his ATM cards’ PIN. They let him go after a few hours, telling him to report the incident to the police.

The victim, who works as a driver in Sector 56, immediately approached the police and narrated his ordeal, following which a case under sections 379-A (theft) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Sector 29 police station.

The police said they were questioning the accused to know the exact number of victims targeted in the past and if anyone else was also part of their gang.

First Published: May 31, 2019 01:01 IST