Rs 2 crore silver heist: Five nabbed

NEW DELHI: A state-level cricket player, a garment exporter, a shop owner, a cab driver and an MCD safai karamchari allegedly conspired with a freight service employee and duped the agency of a consignment of silver worth Rs 2 crore by impersonating as Delhi Police officers.
However, the motley group soon ran out of luck and five gang members were arrested on Friday on atip-off .Silver worth Rs 1.60 crore has been recovered.
The arrested have been identified as Bijay Sharma, Eid Muhammed, Nawab, Umesh Kumar Saini and Manoj Kumar. One Sunil Kumar and the freight service employee Brija Yadav are on the run.
“The accused tricked three persons carrying six parcels containing 394kg of silver ornaments. Ornaments weighing 274kg have been recovered from them,’’ said DCP (crime) Ashok Chand.
Investigation began on the complaint of one Rajesh Puri, an employee of the freight service. He said on November 27, he and his co-workers had taken delivery of six parcels containing silver jewellery from the parcel yard at the old Delhi railway station. They were taking the consignment in a handcart to their office in Chandni Chowk when they were waylaid by the accused.
“When they reached Delhi Public Library, four persons, posing as cops, intercepted them on pretext of checking the consignment and verifying their documents. They were asked to sit in a Tavera. The parcels were loaded in the delivery van (Tata tempo) brought by the accused,” said Chand.
“While the Tavera abandoned the employees at the Noida Expressway, the delivery van sped away with the parcels. The silver ornaments had been sent from Gujarat to Delhi through an authorized railway parcel agent,’’ said Chand.
Police said on interrogation, the accused revealed that one Sunil Kumar was the mastermind behind the robbery. Sunil knew one Brija Yadav, an employee of the freight service. He told Sunil that silver bricks and ornaments are handled by the agency and are transported through handcart.
On November 27, when the gang arrived at the old Delhi railway station, Yadav identified the employees in charge of the consignment delivery. The gang then followed them, said cops.