The robbers then shot at a person identified as Sandesh Gomare who worked as a contractual employee at the bank. A day after two armed robbers shot dead a contractual employee and looted Rs 2.5 lakh from State Bank of India’s Dahisar (west) branch, a special team of Mumbai Police, equipped with a dog squad, arrested the duo from a slum Friday with the help of CCTV footage.
The one who allegedly used the gun was identified as Dharmendra Yadav, 21, while his aide was identified as his 19-year-old cousin Vikas Yadav. The duo hails from Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh and were currently residing at a slum in Dahisar (east). They are said to have seen YouTube videos of successful and unsuccessful bank robberies before allegedly executing the crime.
“We recovered Rs 2.05 lakh from them and the pistol used in the crime,” said Vishal Thakur, DCP zone XI. Dharmendra, who dropped out of college after HSC, told the police that he committed the crime because his father, a farmer, had taken a loan of Rs 4.5 lakh and he wanted to clear it. Dharmendra works with a catering service.
The incident took place around 3.26 pm at the bank located less than a kilometre from Dahisar railway station on the ground floor of Gurukul CHS on the Jaywant Sawant Road. The bank does not have a security guard posted on the premises.
“Around eight employees, a majority of them women, were present at the time,” said a police officer.
As the robbers barged in, Sandesh Gomane, who worked as a peon on a contractual basis, got up and was shot within seconds by Dharmendra who was hiding a pistol behind his bag. The bullet hit Gomane in the chest and he fell on a chair. Gomane was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead.
After committing the robbery, the duo returned home within minutes. They had plans to leave the city on Thursday.
The duo had bought the weapon, two cartridges and five bullets from Bihar for Rs 40,000, police said. After tracing them till Rawalpada with the help of CCTV cameras, a 10-year-old girl from the slum tipped off the police about Dharmendra’s house after they provided her with a description of the suspect, police said.
“The duo had planned to rob a bank and had done recce of banks in Dahisar a few days before the crime,” said PSI Dr Deepak Hinde. The police said that Dharmendra had fired one round while testing the gun before buying it and another on the deceased. The remaining three bullets have been recovered.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
