Police arrest nine for robbing courier boys of jewellery worth Rs 3 cr

Items amounting to Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore were stolen on September 27 and October 26 respectively.u00a0

The accused have been identified as Yogendra Singh (26), Sudhir Mandal (23), Suraj Kahaar (26), Vijay Prajapati (28), Vinaysingh Yadav (22) and Prem Yadav (21). The persons who bought the stolen goods were Rakeshkumar Jain, Chetan Landge and Bharat Giri. Police are still looking for two persons, as there were a total of 11 people involved in the theft.

Breakthrough: The police with the arrested persons. The police said the arrested men had looted courier boys near Seepz on two separate occasions. Booty worth Rs 1 crore was recovered after their arrest.

"We are still looking for two robbers. Among them is the mastermind Rahul Roy (35), who planned and executed the heist. He had worked at the courier company earlier and told Yogendra Singh about his plan. Singh roped in the nine remaining people to execute this plan," said Senior Police Inspector Suresh Hujband.

DCP Cheering Dorje said, "We have recovered items worth Rs 1 crore in addition to the car and knife used in the robbery. They tried melting down the gold items from 24-carat to 8-carat in order to avoid getting caught when trying to sell them off. In the process, some of the diamonds got tarnished and were thrown away."

According to police, the robbers also have a criminal history, including kidnapping. "They had kidnapped the child of a builder and took Rs 4 lakh as ransom. Later in Nerul, they kidnapped another boy who managed to escape," Dorje added.

The arrested persons have been booked under Section 397 (robbery with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and Section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intent) of the Indian Penal Code and have been remanded in police custody till November 27.u00a0