7 arrested for robbing businessman’s house, showroom

New Delhi: Seven persons, including former and current employees of a businessman, have been arrested for allegedly being involved in looting cash and jewellery worth over Rs one crore from his house and showroom in southeast Delhi’s Kalkaji.

On June 13, Naseeb Chand Aggarwal, the owner of a showroom selling imported fabrics, informed police about dacoity at his house and showroom.

He had gone to a gym in a nearby hotel when four armed men forcibly entered his house on the fourth floor of a building, tied up his wife and servant and held them at gunpoint. When the businessman returned to his house, they overpowered him too and assaulted him, police said.

They forced him to handover the keys of the safe and took away Rs 10 lakh cash, 10 to 15 boxes of gold and diamond jewellery worth around Rs one crore from there and two mobile phones, a police officer said.

They also took the keys of his showroom on the ground floor of the building and looted the cash kept there, the officer said.

The CCTV cameras of the building were found to be not functioning. After analysing the details of current and former employees of Aggarwal, police zeroed in on some of his former employees, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Romil Baaniya said.

It was found that they were hiding in Bihar along the Indo-Nepal border. They were frequently changing their location, the officer said.

After several raids at their possible hideouts in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, six persons — Rupesh Kumar Singh, Sonu Gupta, Mohd Imtiyaz Khan, Ramjan Ali, Sudhir and Aaksh — were arrested between June 21 and 27, Baaniya said.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed that Rupesh, the mastermind of the crime, is a former employee of Aggarwal, while Sonu was employed there till last year, the police said.

Sudhir, who was currently under employment of the businessman, had done a recce and passed on the information to hsi accomplices. Around the time of dacoity, he had gone on leave on the pretext of attending his brother’s marriage, they said.

In Bihar, the accused were given shelter in Patna by Shamsher Singh alias Chotu and received a large part of the looted jewellery. He also facilitated their escape to Nepal.

Following raids in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and along the Nepal border, Singh was also arrested, the police officer said, adding one of the accused is still at large.

Rs 8.5 lakh in cash and all the jewellery that were robbed from the elderly couple’s house have been recovered, the police said.

—PTI