Gang active at railway stations busted

NEW DELHI: The

Crime Branch

has arrested a gang of robbers that offered lift to

passengers

from

railway stations

in

autorickshaws

and robbed them of their belongings. Police say the men called themselves the “Dholbaaz” gang and were involved in more than 100 cases.

The men, Devender, Mashkoor, Vicky Choudhary, Rajan Aggarwal and Kuldeep Soni used to pose as autorickshaw drivers and wait outside railway stations, offering a cheap trip nearby. One of the tactics they used involved picking two of their gang members posing as passengers and driving to a desolate area where they would hold the victims at gunpoint and rob them.

Police had received a complaint on October 21 where a woman was robbed of her jewellery and cash by the gang after she had boarded their autorickshaw from the Nizamuddin railway station. In her complaint, the woman said that the two gang members had boarded the autorickshaw in such a way that her view was blocked and snatched Rs 5 lakh in cash and jewellery from her. She was pushed out of the moving autorickshaw.

“After several such complaints, a team was formed to track down the accused as the modus operandi indicated the involvement of one such gang. A trap was laid near Nizamuddin railway station and the five members of the gang were apprehended,” said joint commissioner (crime) Ravindra Yadav.

Police say that Soni owned a jewellery shop in east Delhi and sold off the stolen jewellery to his contacts while the others had previous criminal records. All of them worked as labourers or painters and had formed the gang to earn easy money.

Police suspect that the gang was the only one operating across all the railway stations.

They are being interrogated further to identify their victims. Police say that all of them have admitted to their crimes.