Police on Tuesday claimed that they have arrested two of the three persons seen in CCTV footage robbing a businessman and his family in upscale Gujranwala Town just as they parked their car in their home last week. They were also suspected of robbing a medical store in New Friends Colony.

The men were arrested from Loni, near the Delhi-Ghaziabad border on Monday, they said. The alleged kingpin of the gang and another associate are still at large. They claim the gang was involved in more than 30 robberies in Delhi, Noida and Gurugram in the last two months.

Police identified the arrested men as Saffan (alias Affan) and Mohammad Chand, both 23 years old. The “kingpin” was identified as Burhan, Saffan’s brother- in-law.

As many as 20 teams from the Delhi Police and their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana were on the hunt for this gang. Police described them as “striking regularly” and “at will”, triggering fear among residents in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

The gang allegedly committed four to five robberies a night and used firearms. They did not hesitate in opening fire at the victims or police at the slightest sign of resistance, police said.

In the Gujranwala Town case, 35-year-old Varun Behl was parking his car in his home when the gang struck. At the time, his wife and two minor children and their domestic help were in the car. One man with a gun was seen threatening Behl’s wife who had their four-year-old daughter in her lap at the time.

The same gang was also allegedly involved in the New Friends Colony medical store robbery case, bike-jacking on gunpoint in east Delhi’s Mandawali, robbery and firing on police personnel in Adarsh Nagar and three back-to-back robberies committed in Hazrat Nizamuddin, Lajpat Nagar and Sunlight Colony last week.

Most of the above mentioned robberies were caught on CCTV cameras. The videos of the Gujarawala Town, NFC and Mandawali robberies were widely circulated on social media, prompting the Delhi Police to form multiple teams including that of special cell and crime branch to identify and nab the suspects.

Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Atul Kumar Thakur said that the district’s anti-snatching and robbery cell on Monday received information that members of the gang would come to Loni Road on two-wheelers. Accordingly, a trap was laid in front of a Gurudwara near MIG flats on Loni Road and two suspects were caught as they arrived on a motorcycle, he said.

“One semi-automatic pistol and a country made pistol with six cartridges were recovered from their possession. The bike they were riding was a stolen one. We arrested the duo and booked them for possessing illegal firearms,” said the DCP, adding that one stolen scooter was recovered after the duo was questioned.

Thakur said, the arrested duo revealed the names of their associates and disclosed that they committed midnight robberies across Delhi.

Burhan, Saffan and another absconding suspect are from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, while Chand is from Muradnagar near Ghaziabad. Burhan and Saffan had been jailed for two months for similar offences but received bail in May.

The activities of this gang first came to light in December last year when similar back-to-back robberies were committed in northeast Delhi.

“They first robbed bikers of their two-wheeler on gunpoint. They reached a residential neighbourhood on the stolen two-wheelers and identified their targets. The conducted reconnaissance of the area and escape routes,” said a police officer .

“Once all preparations were done, the robbers tied clothes around their faces and wore caps to avoid being detected . They robbed the victims of their cash, jewellery and other belongings on gunpoint and fled on bikes. They used to abandon the bikes and returned to their rented homes in auto-rickshaws,” added the officer.

First Published: Jul 10, 2019 04:28 IST