Main accused is absconding
PrashantNews
The Uttarakhand police is moving fast to solve the April 13 Pearl Height robbery case in Dehradun’s posh Vasant Vihar area with the arrest of two more people after a brief encounter in the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
Earlier on Sunday, police nabbed a vital contact person Omvir who had carried out a recce of the Pearl Height flat and recovered Rs 3.5 lakh cash from him. The robbery took place in the flat of Vikas Tyagi with his wife Shalu filing a police complaint against Rajiv Agarwal and three other unidentified people. Police has so far not found any evidence against Agarwal, who is a business partner of Tyagi.
After getting lots of inputs from Omvir, the police teams fanned out near Mohand and Biharigarh areas in Saharanpur and also in Muzaffarnagar areas of Uttar Pradesh and kept a close watch on the suspicious elements. In the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, the police arrested two gangsters after a brief encounter in which one robber and a police sub-inspector received bullet injuries.
The police claimed that it has recovered earrings which were part of the looted jewelry, one country-made pistol, one local revolver and two live cartridges from the two gangsters.
The main accused in the robbery has been identified as Kapil Kumar alias Ravan who is still absconding. Omvir told the police that he was hired for carrying out the recce of the flat by one Shubham Tyagi of Muzaffarnagar. A manhunt has been launched to nab Ravan and Shubham Tyagi, SSP Dehradun Ajai Singh said. Ravan is facing various criminal offences in different districts of Uttarakhand like robbery and loot and was also booked under the Gangster Act.
Giving details, the SSP said the encounter took place when the duo was going to Dehradun from Muzaffarnagar on a motorbike to indulge in some new crime. When they were signaled to stop at the Asharodi check post in Dehradun, the duo sped back toward Saharanpur. A police team chased the speeding bike. After travelling some distance, the duo fled into the nearby jungles leaving the bike on the road. When they were trying to flee, one gangster fired at the police team in which sub-inspector Sunil Negi received bullet injuries in his left thigh.
In self-defence, the police also fired back in which one gangster identified as Mohd Furkan was injured. He received bullet in his foot. Both Negi and Furkan were rushed to Coronation hospital for treatment. Police also claimed to have recovered earrings from the injured Furkan. The second gangster however managed to escape. Alert policemen continued to chase the fleeing gangster in the jungles. After sometime, the police also managed to nab Mohd Wasim from the jungles. Both the gangsters are natives of Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh.
During the interrogation, Wasim and Furkan told the police that they carried out the robbery plot which was hatched by the main accused Ravan alias Kapil Kumar. On the instructions of Ravan, the task of carrying out recce of Tyagi’s flat in Pearl Height apartment was assigned to Shubham Tyagi who in turn hired Omvir. After Omvir carried out the recce of the flat, the gangsters chose April 13 to enter Tyagi’s flat at Pear Height. Omvir distracted the guard by asking lot of questions. This gave ample opportunity to other gangsters to enter inside the apartment.
After entering Tyagi’s flat, the gangsters looted Rs 7-8 lakh in cash and 20 tola jewelry at gunpoint on April 13. Later, the gangsters fled in a car. “A total of six gangsters were involved in the robbery. We have arrested three of them and severe manhunt has been launched to nab other three gangsters,” said the SSP.
Uttrakhand police has done a wonderful job by nabbing the culprits within 48 hours of the incident.
But lesson to be learnt is how such robbery has taken place in midday, that too in a multi storey building which are considered to be safe. Adequate security arrangements are missing, in hi rise apartments.