A debt of ₹2 lakh pushed a 25-year-old man to commit robbery in south-east Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. The accused and his accomplice have been arrested, the police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) R.P. Meena said that the accused have been identified as Abid, a resident of Haryana and an Arabic language translator, and his accomplice Parvez Khan, a former student of a reputed private school in Faridabad.

The police said that they received a call on Tuesday regarding a robbery of ₹3,000 and two gas cylinders near Al Shifa Hospital. When the police reached the spot, the cylinder delivery boys told them that four persons came and introduced themselves as vigilance officers and started making allegations that the delivery men were indulging in malpractices, after which they forcefully took the money and cylinders from them.

During probe, the police identified Parvez and one Neeraj with the help of technical surveillance and human intelligence. Subsequently, based on a tip-off, Parvez and Abid were held and they confessed to having committed the robbery with Neeraj and one Salim, the police said.

During interrogation, Abid told the police that he has wife, two children and seven sisters to support. His father is a farmer, who used to work as a translator and facilitated persons coming from Gulf countries. Later, he started a guest house business with a friend, but incurred a loss sue to the lockdown.

Debt of ₹2 lakh

Abid eventually met Neeraj who lends money on interest. He took ₹2 lakh from Neeraj having kept his car on mortgage. As Abid could not pay back Neeraj, he asked the latter for some work after which Neeraj allegedly roped him in the robbery along with others.