Did cops in the Capital rob jewellery shop?

New Delhi: It appears to be a case of guardians of the law turning lawbreakers. An FIR has been registered against a woman inspector and two other cops of Delhi Police's Crime Branch posted with its Special Investigation Team (SIT) for allegedly hiring goons to rob a jewellery shop in Rohini area of outer Delhi.

A police official said that the robbery was committed at around 8 pm on April 13. Store owner Sanjay Kumar Verma was sitting inside the shop along with other staff members when two persons came inside and asked for some gold chains.

"All of a sudden they pulled out guns and three more aides joined them. They robbed 15 kg of silver, 5.5 kg of gold and around Rs 1 lakh in cash. Two male customers were present at the shop while two women had just arrived. The robbers held them hostage at gunpoint and locked them inside a cabin of the shop and fled. The robbers were wearing monkey caps. Sanjay alleged that inspector Arti Sharma and her team is behind the incident," said the police.

An FIR has been registered at Rohini South police station under sections 392 (robbery), 342 (holding hostage) 506 (threatening of dire consequences) and arms act on April 14. The official said that the accused - Arti Sharma, Sharad Kohli and Amit Tomar - operate from the SIT office of Crime Branch in sector 18 of Rohini.   

Sanjay Kumar Verma alleged that the accused Crime Branch officials had been harassing him for quite a long time. He said that the trio wanted a huge amount of cash from him and when the money was not paid he was booked in five false cases. "On March 22 a Crime Branch team visited my shop and vandalised the interiors. They broke the CCTV cameras and removed the digital video recording system. When I asked them the reason behind this they accused me of purchasing stolen jewellery and took me along to their sector 18 office for interrogation," alleged the victim.

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Sanjay added that the police team which was being headed by Arti Sharma also collected 43 gold chains worth Rs 5 lakh from his shop claiming that these had been stolen. The victim said that he was brutally beaten up by cops at the police station and was asked to pay Rs 5 lakh to secure his release.

The victim said that 23 gold chains were later returned to him and the rest were usurped by Crime Branch officials. He also alleged that the chains shown before court were not from his shop. "They called up my family members and said that they will book me under 20 cases of purchasing stolen property and demanded Rs 5 lakh. They then booked me in five cases when we failed to produce the money," alleged the victim. Sanjay added that Crime Branch officials had taken the key to his shop.

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"They handed over the keys in court but denied vandalising the digital video recording system," he said.

DCP, Crime, Ashok Chand called Sanjay's whole story a fictitious account. He said that Sanjay has been involved in five cases and is deliberately accusing the crime team to be behind the robbery.

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"He has deliberately taken the names of Arti Sharma, Sharad Kohli and Amit Tomar. He wants to pressurise us. Five stolen gold chains were recovered from him. Allegations that have been levelled by him against Crime Branch are false and baseless," said Ashok Chand.

Hari Kishan Verma, Sanjay's father, said that on March 26 when Sanjay was being produced in Rohini Court, he was beaten up by a goon named Shalu who was hired by the cops. "Shalu asked us to pay Rs 1 lakh or threatened to attack me with a blade if I didn't comply.

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"He made me write a letter to my family members. Someone called Mallika, who was known to the goon, called up my father to hand over the money to her. This conversation was recorded by us and Mallika was caught red-handed. An FIR was registered at Prashant Vihar Police station. This incident clearly indicates that Crime Branch cops have been after me," alleged the victim. MiD DAY has a copy of the recording. Local police confirmed the incident and said that Mallika was arrested for extorting money from Hari Kishan.