Prime accused in Lajpat Nagar heist held by cops
4 March 2014 5:42 AM IST
According to police, Pradeep Machhender was nabbed while two of his associates managed to flee.
‘We had received a tip-off that Pradeep would be coming to Sultanpuri along with two of his associates, identified as Amit and Arjun, to meet his contact in a car, following which a trap was laid.
‘When the vehicle was spotted, it was signaled to stop but instead of stopping, the car sped away while its occupants opened fire at us. We chased the car and shot at its tyres and deflated them,’ said a police official.
The police team then apprehended Pradeep although the other occupants Amit and Arjun managed to flee. The driver of the car, who claims that his car was hired by the accused and did not know them, has also been taken into custody. Police have recovered a pistol and some cash from the vehicle.
Machhender was the key henchman who had carried out the loot in which a Honda City was hijacked along with Rs 7.69 crore from south Delhi’s upscale Lajpat Nagar area on 28 January.
So far, more than ten people have been held in this connection along with a juvenile and two Haryana policemen who had let off one of the accused after keeping a big chunk of the cash recovered from him.
Police were able to crack the robbery case after it found that it was businessman Rajesh Kalra’s juvenile office boy who had scripted the heist along with his relatives Ajay and Shakti Naidu who roped in Machhender’s gang. While Naidu has surrendered before the court, Ajay was nabbed by the police.
Several police teams had been searching for Machhender in several states including Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand for the past several days.
In the 28 January robbery, the biggest ever in the national capital, around seven armed men intercepted a Honda City car near Lajpat Nagar Metro station early morning and fled with the vehicle and Rs 7.69 crore in cash.
‘We had received a tip-off that Pradeep would be coming to Sultanpuri along with two of his associates, identified as Amit and Arjun, to meet his contact in a car, following which a trap was laid.
‘When the vehicle was spotted, it was signaled to stop but instead of stopping, the car sped away while its occupants opened fire at us. We chased the car and shot at its tyres and deflated them,’ said a police official.
The police team then apprehended Pradeep although the other occupants Amit and Arjun managed to flee. The driver of the car, who claims that his car was hired by the accused and did not know them, has also been taken into custody. Police have recovered a pistol and some cash from the vehicle.
Machhender was the key henchman who had carried out the loot in which a Honda City was hijacked along with Rs 7.69 crore from south Delhi’s upscale Lajpat Nagar area on 28 January.
So far, more than ten people have been held in this connection along with a juvenile and two Haryana policemen who had let off one of the accused after keeping a big chunk of the cash recovered from him.
Police were able to crack the robbery case after it found that it was businessman Rajesh Kalra’s juvenile office boy who had scripted the heist along with his relatives Ajay and Shakti Naidu who roped in Machhender’s gang. While Naidu has surrendered before the court, Ajay was nabbed by the police.
Several police teams had been searching for Machhender in several states including Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand for the past several days.
In the 28 January robbery, the biggest ever in the national capital, around seven armed men intercepted a Honda City car near Lajpat Nagar Metro station early morning and fled with the vehicle and Rs 7.69 crore in cash.
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