Driver arrested for Rs 22-cr Delhi heist

The Delhi Police on Friday arrested the driver of a cash replenishment agency involved in the biggest heist in New Delhi and recovered nine boxes with Rs 22.50 crore cash.

Pradeep Kumar Shukla, 35, was arrested from a godown in south Delhi’s Okhla Industrial Area.

He has been charged under section 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code.

SIS Cash Services had conducted the police verification of Pradeep, a resident of Harkesh Nagar. He did not have any criminal history. The initial interrogation has also revealed that Pradeep did not plan it, but chose to flee on finding an opportunity.

“Pradeep failed to leave the city as he was alone and had cash in nine boxes. He only managed to spent Rs 10,000 before being caught at 4.30 am on Friday,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (South-Eastern Range) R S Krishnia.

On Thursday, a PCR call was received at Okhla Industrial Area police station regarding ‘theft’ of cash from the cash van. ACP (Kalkaji) Jasbir Singh along with SHO Naresh Solanki reached at the spot near Govindpuri Metro station. The cash van – DL 1LK 9189 – was found parked there, but the cash was missing.

SIS Cash Services’ branch manager Dinesh Kumar told the police that they were engaged in the business of depositing cash in private as well as government bank ATMs. At 2.30 pm on Thursday, the cash van driven by Pradeep along with security guard Vinay Kumar Patel had left from west Delhi’s Vikaspuri collecting nine boxes containing Rs 22.50 crore cash for their Okhla office. At about 3.41 pm, Vinay de-boarded the van for attending nature’s call. During this period, Pradeep fled with the vehicle.

“When Vinay called Pradeep over his mobile phone, Pradeep made an excuse that traffic police were not allowing him to park the van. After some time, Pradeep switched off his phone,” Krishnia added.

Vinay reached at his Okhla office at about 4.30 pm and narrated the incident to the branch in-charge Anand Kumar. After a search, SIS Cash Services found the abandoned cash van near Govindpuri Metro station and informed the police at 5.48 pm.

During investigation, Pradeep’s address was found to be house number 1882 near Jagram Mandir in Kotla Mubarakpur. Raids were conducted at the address, but it was found that he was not living there anymore.