Four held in armed robbery case in Delhi's Patparganj

New Delhi, Jun 23 (PTI) Delhi Police has arrested four men for allegedly robbing a 53-year-old pastry shop owner at knifepoint near a sweets shop in east Delhi's Patparganj area, an official on Monday said.

The incident took place on June 20 when the complainant, Vinod Kumar Sharma, a resident of Noida and owner of a pastry shop in Patparganj, was intercepted by three motorcycle-borne assailants near Bansal Sweets, police said.

The robbers threatened him at knifepoint, assaulted him and forcibly snatched his car before fleeing the spot, they said.

The accused were identified as Shane Alam alias Mazid (25), Prince alias Sunny (18), Himanshu alias Gundi (18) and Tanuj (20), all residents of east Delhi, police said.

The stolen car used in the crime has been located in Uttarakhand's Haridwar, they said.

"Multiple teams were formed to nab the accused after the incident," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), East, Abhishek Dhania.

The officer said that extensive CCTV footage and call data helped track the movement of the accused toward Sanjay Lake Metro Station.

Acting on the leads, the police teams conducted a search near the metro premises during which the four suspects tried to flee but were caught after a brief chase, he added.

"The suspects during interrogation initially tried to mislead police but later confessed to the robbery," said the DCP, adding they revealed that the stolen car had been hidden in Haridwar.

Sharing profiles of the accused, police said Alam, who works at a salon in Noida and is a class 10 dropout, has one prior criminal case.

Prince, an AC repair assistant, and Himanshu, an unemployed vagabond, are both school dropouts with no prior records. Tanuj, a motorcycle delivery boy, also has no known criminal background, they said.

The accused disclosed that they were all facing financial hardships and decided to commit a robbery to make quick money, said police, adding they planned to sell the stolen vehicle in another state hoping to avoid detection. PTI BM AS AS