A 24-year-old carpenter, who designed a secret locker for keeping the valuables in the house of a contractor, was arrested for planning and executing a robbery in the same house at South Delhi’s Sadiq Nagar area. His three other associates, including a juvenile, were also nabbed within a week after the incident. Interestingly, all the accused are first-timers and they hatched the plan anticipating huge cash and valuables inside the locker but got nothing.
The incident happened on May 23 in a dense locality of Sadiq Nagar under the jurisdiction of Defence Colony police station. Premlata, the 30-year-old daughter of contractor Jhaman lal was alone at home when the accused barged in. Armed with a button knife, they held Premlata hostage for 20 minutes and also threatened to kill her if she called for help, said a police official involved in the investigation.
All the three accused were told about the place where the huge cash was kept. They asked for the keys to the new secret locker and fled after taking Rs9,000 that was kept inside the locker and a mobile phone. Premlata informed other neighbours and alerted police. A team led by inspectors Kuldeep Singh, the SHO of Defence Colony police station and Inspector Kumar Jeeweshwar swung into action and investigation was taken up. Preliminary investigations revealed the accused had recceed the house before executing the plan. The needle of suspicion also pointed at an insider.
“Working on a specific lead, the team reached one of the suspects, a juvenile in South-East Delhi’s Sangam Vihar area. He disclosed the involvement of three others, including a carpenter, who had designed and made the secret locker inside a wooden almirah in the bedroom,” said a police officer. On his disclosure, police arrested Jitender, alias Rinku (23) and Jitender (22) from Sangam Vihar area. The carpenter, who was later identified as Ibrahim, was also arrested, the official added. Ibrahim told police that he has been working as a carpenter for two years and a few months ago he made the secret locker in the house. From there, he got an idea of stealing the money with the help of his three associates.