New Delhi: Three Nepali nationals have been arrested for tying up an 86-year-old jeweller at his home, robbing him and then leaving him for dead under a shower after the victim pretended to be dead.
The arrested men include the victim’s 22-year-old servant who was hired just a few days before the crime but without any necessary police verification.
Though the servant was known to be among the assailants, police were clueless about his identity as his photograph was not available.
Investigators, led by under-training IPS officer Shashank Jaiswal and under the overall supervision of ACP (Ashok Vihar) Saurabh Chandra, cracked the case by clues provided by a mobile phone recharge coupon.
The robbers had made away with cash, jewellery and watches worth around Rs.40 crore. These included a watch costing Rs.15 lakh. Police said they have recovered most of the items.
The victim has been identified as Prakash Chandra Jain who had a jewellery shop in Karol Bagh and lives with his family in North-West Delhi’s Ashok Vihar.
He had employed four servants to look after his bungalow and a security guard Ashok Kumar to look after the house’s security.
The robbery involved a Nepali servant Dinesh Bahadur.
“An opportunity came up when Jain’s son Sukaran was on a trip to Bangkok with his family. Bahadur involved his three friends and executed a plan around 3 a.m. on January 26,” said Vijay Singh, DCP (North-West), on Saturday.
Three members of the gang first tied up and gagged the security guard Ashok before their entry into the house was facilitated by Bahadur, who was inside.
“Apart from the servants, only my daughter and I were inside the house. We were in separate rooms. They locked my daughter’s room and bolted the room in which the three other servants were lodged,” said Mr. Jain.
The jeweller was then rudely woken up by the robbers who gagged him even as he kept pleading for his life. They tied him up before dumping him in the bathroom as two of the assailants began plundering the house for valuables.
Before leaving, the robbers thrashed him trying to kill him.
“By god’s grace, an idea struck me and I consciously stopped breathing and pretended to be dead. That possibly fooled the robbers into believing that I had died and they stopped,” Jain told The Hindu .
But, before leaving, the robbers turned on the shower and pushed Jain under it, possibly with an intention to ensure he did not survive.
Jain struggled to untie himself and the police were informed around 6 a.m. when he finally managed to untie himself.
Unable to track Bahadur, police learnt that another Nepali man Dharma, working as a watchman in the area, had been missing since the crime.
His house was searched and he was found missing. But, the investigators found a mobile phone recharge coupon, which helped them put the phone on surveillance.
That helped the police track him down and arrest Bahadur and two other suspects from their hideout in Uttam Nagar on Friday afternoon. Police continue to hunt for Dharma.
The robbers had made away with cash, jewellery and watches worth around Rs.40 crore
