Robbers waylay trader with 2 stolen cars in lajpat Nagar; police suspect it’s Hawala money
In one of the most sensational daylight heists in the national Capital, some unidentified armed men robbed nearly Rs 8 crore from a businessman’s car near Moolchand Flyover in lajpat Nagar in South Delhi on Tuesday around 9 am.
Rakesh Kumar Sharma, the manager of the businessman, along with his four colleagues, was travelling in a Honda City to deposit the money in three banks. When their car reached near lajpat Nagar Metro station, a silver Wagon-R overtook it and stopped right in front of their car while a Hyundai Verna followed and stopped just behind the Honda City. Then five to six armed men trained guns at them and asked them to alight from their car. The robbers then fled the scene in the Honda City carrying the cash, leaving one of their vehicles on the spot.
Interestingly, the crime spot usually remains crowded with bumper-to-bumper traffic during morning and evening peak hours. Probably the robbers took advantage of this to vanish in the crowd easily, said the police.
Although, the robbers were traceless till the report was filed, police managed to recover the two vehicles used in the crime as well as the vehicle of the victims in which the accused had fled the scene.
Sources said that it was the biggest heist in the history of Delhi; the previous being the Defence Colony robbery in September 2012 in which Rs 5.25 crore was robbed from the cash van of a private bank.
Police said the money belonged to Rajesh Kalra and Rahul Ahuja. Kalra is a named accused in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing case. The police suspect it to be unaccounted money coming through Hawala transactions.
“Rakesh Sharma had picked Rs 3 crore from Kucha Mahajani in Chandni Chowk that came through Hawala on Monday. On Tuesday morning, he collected another sum of Rs 4.69 crore from Kalra’s house in GK-I. We are ascertaining the actual source of money,” said a senior police official.
Various wings of the Delhi Police, including Special Cell and Crime Branch, are involved in the investigation even as a Forensic team of the CBI has also joined the probe. Police have sealed all border points and CCTV camera footages are being scanned to find clues. A case has been registered.
Rakesh Sharma, along with four of his colleagues identified as Subodh, Rajesh Mishra, Baijnath and Rakesh, said a Hyundai i20 car was escorting the Honda City but due to peak hour traffic, it lost immediate trail.
Subodh was driving the car and as soon as he drove the car down the Moolchand flyover he was intercepted by a Wagon-R car. Two occupants of the Wagon-R car got down and started an argument for allegedly grazing the car. In the meanwhile, a white Hyundai Verna car which was right behind the Honda City stopped and around four armed goons came out asked the occupants of the Honda City to alight. The attackers abandoned their Wagon-R on the spot and fled in the Honda City car that had two black bags containing the money.
A PCR call was made by Subodh around 9:32 am.
Police officials reached the spot and seized the car.
Both the cars used in the commission of the crime were stolen ones. Soon after the incident, the Hyundai Verna was recovered from near Jangpura Metro station. Minutes after this, the Honda City car along with the bags minus the cash was recovered from Sewa Nagar area near the railway crossing. Two fake number plates were also recovered from the Hyundai Verna.
“The Wagon-R car was stolen on January 24 from the Delhi-Karnal road, a case regarding the same has been registered at Jahangirpuri police station. The Hyundai Verna was stolen on January 21 from Mundka area,” said a police official.