Gang of ‘ pizza hungry’ robbers busted, 3 held
MONEY HUNGRY Group targeted pizza and food delivery staff in southeast Delhi
NEWDELHI: Their weakness for the cheese-oozing discs of dough topped with veggies and meat proved to be the undoing of a gang of robbers in Delhi.
In a city notorious for crime, these pizza crazy criminals targeted pizza and food delivery staff in southeast Delhi and robbed them of their valuables as well as their mouth-watering consignments.
The gang members would order pizzas on the phone, schedule the delivery at secluded locations and then rob the deliverymen of pizzas, phones, cash and their two-wheelers.
Police said two of the three gang members arrested had earlier worked as deliverymen and their knowledge of the business helped them commit these robberies.
On Sunday, the police arrested three men who admitted to their involvement in more than a dozen such cases, of which five have been established so far with the recovery of five food delivery bags, credit card machines, three mobile phones and a motorcycle.
According to the police, the gang came on the police radar when they committed three rob- beries between Saturday and Sunday.
Deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said deliverymen from a pizza outlet in Zamrudpur and those from two restaurants in Malviya Nagar and Kalkaji were robbed in Sriniwaspuri.
“It was noticed that in all three incidents, the accused, identified as Deepak (one name) (23), Chirag Sharma (23) and Karan Mahajan (19), had placed orders at different restaurants through an online food delivery portal and requested delivery at secluded places, mostly around Sriniwaspuri. The deliverymen told the police that when they arrived with the order, the men brandished a knife, snatched the food and then robbed them of valuables,” the DCP said.
During investigations, the police found that the mobile phone number used for placing the first of the three orders was registered in someone else’s name. “For the next two orders, the accused used the mobile phone they had robbed from the first deliveryman. Following surveillance, the police zeroed in on Mahajan and he was arrested. He admitted his involvement in the robberies,” Biswal said.
Mahajan disclosed the whereabouts of his associates and Deepak and Sharma were arrested the same day. A motorcycle, three stolen mobile phones, two ATM card swiping machines, ₹3,000 cash and five delivery bags were recovered from them.
Police said Mahajan was addicted to drugs and dropped out of school. His father migrated to the US a few years ago, leaving him and his mother behind. After that, Mahajan allegedly started harassing his mother, who then filed a domestic violence case against him. A court had recently restrained him from going within 200 metres of his mother’s house, police said.
Police have also found that Deepak earlier used to work as a deliverymen for an online shopping portal. Three months ago, Deepak was arrested for a car robbery in Amar Colony and was jailed. He recently got out and hooked up with Sharma, who was recently relieved of his services as a deliverymen with the same online food delivery portal with which the three victims were working.