‘Started to rob after learning I’m HIV+’

‘Started to rob after learning I’m HIV+’
By Gagandeep Dhillon

The accused, who found out about his condition in 2007, says he sends the loot to his mother and brother in UP.

The main accused in last Tuesday’s robbery at Bandra-Kurla Complex, who held a banker at gunpoint and drove his car for a couple of hours before forcing him to withdraw Rs 80,000 from an ATM in south Mumbai, is HIV positive, and has been robbing people since 2007 to send money to his mother and brother, residing in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur village.

The accused, aged 35, has at least seven cases of armed robberies. He was arrested for a petty crime in 2007, and found that he was HIV positive during medical check-up, he told the Kherwadi police, who took over his custody from the Crime Branch after his arrest in the BKC robbery case.

He told the police that he has no home, and sleeps on a footpath at Masjid Bunder when not in jail. He further said that he used a toy gun to rob the banker, Amit Rai, after sneaking into his Renault Duster (see below).

“He thinks he will die soon because of HIV, and that has made him fearless. He was recently released after serving time in jail for a robbery he committed in June this year. He had hijacked a doctor’s car in Juhu and robbed him of Rs 10,000 and valuables at gunpoint, claiming he was a member of the Chhota Rajan gang. He has four other cases of robbery in Juhu alone,” a police source said. In all the cases, the man targets those driving high-end cars, the police said.

The man told the police that he came to Mumbai in search of work in 2007. Soon, he started doing drugs and began to steal to fund his habit. “The same year, he was arrested for a robbery he committed in Matunga, and came to know that he was HIV positive after a check-up was conducted when he was lodged in the Thane jail. He has been on medication since,” a source from Kherwadi Police Station said.

A Crime Branch officer said that the man wastes little time in sending the loot to his family in Uttar Pradesh, and there has been very little recovery in earlier cases. “This time around, he was traced within 48 hours of the crime and a large part of the stolen cash and all the valuables were recovered,” the cop said.

He is in the police custody along with his accomplices Pankaj Morya and Rakesh Arundhati, and the cops said that he takes the medicines “regularly”.

The police are also buying into his toy gun story. “He said that he bought a gun from a toy shop and used it to rob the banker. We are yet to recover it... He has claimed that he threw it on the railway tracks after the robbery,” a senior cop said.

THE BANKER’S ORDEAL

#Amit Rai, a deputy manager with a private bank, was on his way home last Tuesday. He was in his car, at the jam-packed Kherwadi junction, when the accused entered the vehicle through the unlocked rear door, and held Rai at gunpoint.

#The accused asked Rai about his salary details, and forced him to drive to the Sion railway bridge. The robber tied the banker’s limbs and pushed him to the rear seat.

# The robber called up an accomplice, and they drove around for a few hours, with Rai trussed to the rear seat. The robbers drove towards Ballard Pier, where Rai was forced to withdraw Rs 80,000 from his debit and credit cards. The robbers also took away his mobile phone and laptop.

#The robbers were arrested within 48 hours of the crime.