In the case of Rs 1lakh duped from an old man in broad daylight on October 21, Dehradun police has arrested all the three accused. During interrogation, the accused revealed that they decided to keep an 80-year old man in their gang thinking that he would not be suspected easily while reconnoitering the target area.

The accused have been identified as Mohan Lal, Harun and Mohammad Gani. All are residents of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. Police have recovered Rs 16,000 from all three of them.

According to the information provided by local police, complainant, Anuj Bhatia, in his complaint, said that one of his employees—Jagdish Prasad — was taking Rs  1 lakh in cash from the branch of HDFC bank at Arhat Bazaar, when one of the trio riding a cycle crashed into him. The victim Prasad identified the cyclist as a boy aged 18-19 years.

Speaking to media persons on Wednesday, Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Arun Mohan Joshi said that the police teams checked the CCTV footage around the area and then re-verified the old records of similar cases. One such case was marked in which an accused from Moradabad had carried out a similar crime.

Based on the intelligence received from sources and the information they collected from CCTV footage, the police teams went to Moradabad from where all three were arrested.

During the interrogation, they revealed that they used to target the banks and ATMs which are located in crowded areas and then used to target people who they suspected of carrying large sum of cash or jewellery.

Accused Harun and Gani are addicted to smack and have already spent most of the stolen money on drugs and gambling.

According to the accused, Gani was the cyclist who collided with the old man and pretended to help the victim. At the same time, while the victim was confused, Harun stole the money from his pocket.