Investigators at the crime scene after the car robbery last week
One of five men arrested in last week's sensational Rs 8-crore car robbery in south Delhi has reportedly told the police that cops in neighbouring Gurgaon took Rs 7.5 lakh from him when he was trying to get away after the heist.
The police said the man named Ajay, who had surrendered on Monday, has told them that after the robbery near a busy flyover in Lajpat Nagar, he fled to Gurgaon with a portion of the loot along with another accomplice named Pradeep.
He has allegedly claimed that when they were stopped by two policemen, Pradeep managed escaped, but he could not as he was carrying the money. The policemen, he claimed, accepted Rs 7.5 lakh from him and let him go.
The Delhi Police, however, said there is no record at the Kherki Dola police station in Gurgaon that Ajay was detained that day. They are carrying out further investigations.
Ajay was arrested on Monday along with another man named Joginder; Rs 64 lakh, a car and a motorcycle were recovered from them. Today, the police arrested another man, Sunil, alias Kaka. They said Rs 25 lakh was recovered from him.
The police said Ajay is one of the main conspirators in the heist, which they believe was planned by a 17-year-old boy, who is now in custody. The teen, cops allege, told Ajay that the money was being taken out in the car for transaction.
The man who was robbed, businessman Rajesh Kalra, is being investigated after the police realised that close to 15 crore in cash may have been stolen from his car, far more than the 8 crore that the businessman claims was taken. The police say Mr Kalra was named as a conduit between South African skipper Hansie Cronje and a London based bookie in the 2000 match-fixing scandal.
The police suspect the stolen money from Mr Kalra last week was linked to payoffs in an alleged betting racket and included euros and dollars.
Mr Kalra has claimed that the money was for a property deal that fell through. He said he was driving his Honda City to his bank in Karol Bagh last Tuesday to deposit eight crore rupees when a he was robbed and his car hijacked.