Police arrest two in Delhi Metro robbery case

The Delhi Police on late Tuesday night arrested the duo — including an ex-DMRC employee — who stabbed a station control room staffer and looted Rs 12 lakh from the controller room at Rajendra Place metro station on Monday. The first thing they did after committing the robbery was purchasing a Samsung smartphone. The police also recovered Rs 10,55,000 from their possession.

According to the police, the accused, Pawan Kumar (21) and Sonu Kumar (22) were cash-strapped and had been planning to commit the robbery for the past 15 days. “Pawan and Kunal (the stabbed employee) had fought some time ago when the latter got to know that Pawan had misappropriated the cash deposited with the Delhi Metro. Furious over being insulted, Pawan, along with Sonu, planned to take revenge as well as make quick money,” said a senior Delhi Police officer.

“Pawan owned a shop in Vijay Nagar where Sonu used to frequent. Since Sonu too wanted a job in the DMRC but could not get one, he joined Pawan in looting the metro controller room,” the official said. He added that during interrogation, Pawan admitted that he committed the crime to repay the loan for his sister’s wedding which his father had taken.

Police said that in the early hours of Monday, Pawan and Sonu entered the Rajendra Place metro station. Hiding a knife in their socks, they entered by using a smart card. Having worked at the metro station, Pawan was well versed with the station’s layout. Taking advantage of the fact that Kunal worked in the night shift which was about to end at 7 in the morning, he and Sonu knocked at the Station Controller Room door, stabbed Kunal and fled with Rs 12 lakh. The duo boarded an auto and fled to Anand Vihar.

“Through the smart card details used by the accused, we related it with the CCTV footage of the Kaushambi metro station and discovered the role of Pawan. His identity was further ascertained after we went through the list of employees who were sacked by the DMRC,” added the official.

A senior officer said that the Delhi Police will write to the DMRC about the security lapse that led to the robbery. “We will write to DMRC about the security lapses in the metro premises,” said Joint Commissioner of Police M K Meena.