In the high-profile armed robbery case at the residence of West Bengal cricket team captain Abhimanyu Easwaran’s father, the district police have arrested five accused, while three others are still absconding. Owner of the house and the cricketer’s father, RP Easwaran, who owns the Abhimanyu Cricket Academy, had informed police about the robbery on the night of August 22.
The accused arrested have been identified as Virendra Singh alias Thakur, Mohammad Adnan, Muzzibbur Rehman alias Piru, Furkan and Firoz while the absconding are Haidar, Fayim and Mishra, whose name is yet to be verified.
Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Arun Mohan Joshi said, “The mastermind of this robbery is Thakur who was suspended from Border Security Force (BSF) in the year 2000 on the charges of bribery. He was then on the post of Deputy Commandant. We have also recovered Rs 11,69,500 cash and I am positive that we will recover seven eight lakhs more. Other than that, we have also recovered some gold and silver items. They are also claiming that they had done a robbery in the month of May as well, which we will have to verify first.”
The accused Adnan said, “During Ramzan, we had successfully robbed someone named Alok and took Rs 1.38 crore.”
According to the information provided by the police, accused Thakur is the mastermind behind the robbery and used to guide the other members. On the night of robbery, they first went to the house of Rakesh Batta.
The accused knew that when the security guard connects them to the house, they first have to give reference of Raipur MLA Umesh Sharma Kau, but as the owner himself was not there and they were getting a little suspicious, the accused dropped the idea. While returning from Batta’s house, they thought about dropping the plan, but Thakur proposed to rob Easwaran’s house, as the Furkan and Piru had already done reconnaissance of the place.
Piru and Furkan are locals and were familiar with the routes.
During interrogation, Adnan told the police that Furkan and Thankur stayed in the car while Adnan, Mishra, Haider and Fayin went inside Easwaran’s house. As there was no guard in the guard room, who might have gone to have dinner. There, at gun point, they robbed Easwaran’s family and took nearly Rs 3.45 lakhs in cash which they distributed among themselves.
According to police, by following the car which was used in the crime, they reached and arrested Adnan first. On the basis of his interrogation, they then successfully arrested Thakur and others.
It is pertinent to mention here that more than 250 CCTV cameras
were checked for the search and identification of the accused in the case. The accused were highly prepared for they used fake number plates while entering and exiting the district.