By IANS,
New Delhi : One person was arrested Saturday in connection with the sensational Rs.5.25 crore bank van robbery here that left a guard dead, police said Sunday. In all, three people were arrested over the weekend, raising the number of arrests in the case to 10.
Vijay Pandit alias Shyam, 37, was arrested Saturday evening at Palwal bus stand in Haryana. He is a resident of south Delhi’s Maidangarhi.
Earlier, Pawan Kumar alias Pappu, 30, and Ranjit, 30, both residents of east Delhi’s Usmanpur, were arrested Friday from their homes.
Ranjit is a general store merchant while Pawan works with BSES. Rs.25 lakh was recovered from them, taking the total recovered amount to Rs.2.64 crore.
Vijay told police that he got Rs.90 lakh as his share. “Around Rs.86 lakh cash has been recovered from his relatives Tek Chand and Krishan Kumar, who are in police custody. Vijay spent some of the money and paid an associate in Gurgaon for the pistol used in the crime,” said a police officer.
Vijay has been involved in at least 27 cases of murder, kidnapping, robberies and theft. He was released from jail two years ago. He played an instrumental role in the robbery, from hatching the conspiracy to the distribution of the looted cash.
Earlier, he was in jail along with Hari Kishan and Deepak, the main accused, who are in custody now.
“After getting out of jail, he went underground and got married last year. He wanted to do something big, for which he planned and executed this robbery,” said the officer.
They took a fortnight to hatch the plan, collect logistics, and arrange a vehicle, weapons and houses.
On the day of the robbery, the accused started from IGNOU road.
Vijay and Ranjeet drank liquor before the robbery. After the heist, he collected his share from Hari Kishan’s house in Khirki and went home.
“He then fled with his wife and ailing daughter to Gurgaon. He gave two major portions of his share to two relatives and then fled towards Mewat,” said the officer.
A hunt is on to arrest the remaining accused.
The heist took place around 1.19 p.m. near a petrol pump in D-15, Defence Colony on Sep 28. The accused fled with the Maruti Eeco (Radio Taxi No. DL 1 RT 2088) carrying a cash amount of Rs.5.25 crore.
Security personnel in the cash van, attached to a security company Premier Shield, had collected the amount from ICICI Bank’s Hauz Khas branch and were heading towards Lajpat Nagar. Anil Kumar was driving and with him were guards Munne Singh and Ajab Singh, and custodian Ashok Kumar.
The accused shot Munne Singh, who was later pronounced dead at AIIMS, before fleeing with the cash van.