Three arrested for looting Rs 19.21 lakh cash from pharmacy store

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Three men were arrested for allegedly breaking into a pharmacy in central Delhi's Paharganj and fleeing with a locker containing Rs 19.21 lakh cash, police said Thursday. The accused have been identified as Nural Hasan (19), Salman (20) and Raman Bhatia (37), they said. The pharmacy's owner Mrinal Shekhar had complained that the store was burgled in the intervening night of November 26 and 27. The burglars entered the store by breaking the glass of the balcony door and fled with a locker containing Rs 19.21 lakh cash, police said.

As part of the investigation, footage of CCTV cameras installed near the place of incident was analysed, a senior police officer said. Hasan was arrested from Bihari colony area on Wednesday. On his information, his accomplices, Bhatia and Salman, were nabbed from Shahdara's Bhola Nath Nagar in the evening the same day, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Mandeep S Randhawa said. Rs 7.30 lakh, a motorcycle and a mobile phone purchased with the stolen money were seized, he said.

During interrogation, Bhatia revealed that he worked as a parcel boy with the pharmacy and used to deliver medicines to the store. He was aware about the huge amount of money stored in the locker, the DCP said. Police said Bhatia also ran a gym in Bhola Nath Nagar which was under heavy debt. Bhatia along with Salman, who used to run a barber shop in Bhola Nath Nagar hatched a plan to commit the burglary, the DCP said, adding they roped in Hasan, a scrap dealer, and Rajeev, a vegetable vendor, to execute their plan.

They conducted a recce of the area and chose November 26 as the day to commit the crime as banks were closed for the previous three days and they assumed that the store would have a huge amount of cash, the police officer said.
Hasan entered the shop from the balcony on the first floor by climbing the pipes. Besides the locker, he also stole the cash kept in the drawers, police said.

The accused then took the locker to Hasan's shop where they broke it and distributed the cash among them, the police officer said, adding a case has been registered into the matter.

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