Alleged Mastermind Of Multi-Crore Delhi Heist Arrested

Gangster Vikas Lagarpuria, the alleged mastermind of a multi-crore heist that took place here last year, was arrested near the Delhi-Gurugram border on Thursday, a special task force (STF) official said.

STF Inspector General B Satheesh Balan said Lagarpuria was travelling in a cab from Delhi when he was nabbed.

The accused carried a bounty of Rs 2.5 lakh on his head. While Rs 2 lakh reward was announced by STF Haryana, Rs 50,000 was announced by Delhi police, he added.

"The most wanted criminal Lagarpuria was produced in a city court today and we have taken him on 10 days police remand. The accused confessed to the conspiracy of the last year's multi-crore heist in Gurugram," Balan said.  "He revealed that he got about Rs 22 crores of the heist and used it all for multitasks," the IG added.

Earlier, another official had said the gangster was arrested at the Delhi airport.

In a press conference, Balan did not comment on reports that Lagarpuria was deported from Dubai.

The IG said, "Based on specific intelligence we got to know that gangster Vikas Lagarpuria was going to his village in a car. Our team started checking vehicles on the Delhi-Gurugram border." "We had detained three persons in different cars, including Lagarpuria, who was in a cab. Two were let off after they submitted proofs of their identity but Lagarpuria was trying to mislead the team," he said.

Lagarpuria told his name to be Deepak first, a native of Hisar, soon after which he changed to Karnal and later Panipat, he said, adding that on verifying his claims were found to be fake.

Almost two hours later, he revealed his identity as Vikas Lagarpuria, a gangster and confessed his involvement in Gurugram's multi-crore heist. He also revealed that the cash was stolen from here and was kept with two people in Delhi. We are questioning him after taking him on remand," Balan said.  According to the STF, the notorious Lagarpuria hails from Lagarpur village in Haryana's Jhajjar district. He has several cases of murder, attempt to murder, robbery, extortion and kidnapping lodged against him in Delhi and Haryana.

Absconding for the past seven years, Lagarpuria had a red corner notice issued against him by the Delhi Police.

The Haryana STF has been looking for him for the Rs 30-crore heist in Gurugram. Two doctors, a Delhi policeman and a Haryana IPS officer Dheeraj Setia are also accused in the same case.

Answering a question from the IPS officer, Balan said his polygraph test was conducted six days ago in Delhi and further probe is underway.

The incident of the multi-crore heist had taken place on August 4, 2021. The accused had broken into a flat in Sector 84 from where an office of a private company was being run and decamped with Rs 30 crore in cash.

Lagarpuria'a gang members Amit, alias Mitta, a resident of Najafgarh in Delhi, Abhinav of Uttar Pradesh and Dhare were arrested, after which they admitted to having stolen the cash at the directions of the gangster.

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