Robbers waited in hideout till morning
NEW DELHI: As if the brazenness with which they pulled-off an armed, multi-crore robbery in broad daylight wasn't enough, the men behind Friday's heist, sources said, seemed to have been nestled at their hideout at a south Delhi village till early Saturday even as the police had launched a manhunt to nab them.
The two empty currency chests, which contained R5.25 crore, robbed by a gang of five to eight assailants from Defence Colony's D-block after highjacking a Maruti Suzuki Eeco, were recovered from Khirki Extension on Saturday morning.
Police said the currency chests had first been spotted by one Laxman, a security guard who has been in employment at the area for 14 years.
"I was on night duty — from 11 pm on Friday to 5 am on Saturday. I was on the round and the boxes weren't there till 6 am. However, when I returned to the same spot at 7 — I found them dumped there," Laxman said. Laxman then brought the discarded boxes to the notice of a local resident, one Dayanand Saini, who informed the police.
However, the assailants, to escape the heat decided to play it safe till Saturday morning.
"There are several locations in the area which are on rent. It seems they spent their night here before fleeing on Saturday morning," the officer said.
Meanwhile, sources said, one person has been arrested while five others detained and around R1.5 crore had been recovered from their possession. Sources said while one Deepak was arrested, Harikishan, Arun, Vijay, Shekhar and Bhola were detained. No senior police officer was available for comment.