28-year-old Delhi University grad held, cops say was the brain behind jewellery heist

NEW DELHI: A 28-year-old man, graduate from Delhi University, was the mastermind behind the Paharganj robbery wherein two courier employees were robbed of their jewellery packages worth about Rs 5.5 crore. While three people, including the mastermind, have been arrested, two suspects continue to be on the run, a senior police officer said.
The arrested men have been identified as Nagesh Kumar (28), a graduate from Delhi University, Shivam (23), who works at a dairy, and Manish Kumar (22), a student of B Pharma from a private university. All of them are residents of Najafgarh.
TOI had reported on Thursday how the police cracked the case following a Paytm transaction of Rs 100 made by the suspects. Police have recovered from the trio, 6.27 kg gold, 3 kg silver, 500 gm gold deposited in IIFL and 106 raw diamonds with other jewellery items worth over Rs 5.5 crore.
The incident took place around 4.30am on Wednesday when the courier employees were passing through Paharganj area. They were intercepted by two men, one of them wearing a police uniform, on the pretext of checking. As they stopped, two more men came from behind, threw chilli powder at them and fled with the bags and jewellery box they were carrying.
Deputy commissioner of police (central) Shweta Chauhan said her teams checked more than 700 CCTV footage of the past seven days and also gathered local intelligence from near the place of incident. Further investigation revealed that the suspects were talking with one cab driver and one of them had transferred Rs 100 to the account of the cab driver through Paytm and took from him Rs 100 in cash to buy tea.
“This transaction was analysed and the culprits were identified as residents of Najafgarh. Immediately, several teams raided the location but the suspects had left. Thereafter, footage from CCTVs of Najafgarh area were checked to identify their vehicle and it was revealed that they had gone to Rajasthan. A team of 20 policemen was sent to Jaipur and three of them were arrested,” the DCP said.