New Delhi:
The man who planned the Defence Colony cash van heist last Friday and had the largest share of the Rs 5 crore loot, has reportedly told the police that he should have picked a better place to rob the van.
The Delhi Police said Hari Kishan, who was tracked down and arrested in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, has detailed to them how he planned and executed the daring daylight robbery in one of the busiest parts of south Delhi. He is the sixth person to be arrested in connection with the robbery.
The heist was planned more than a month ago. Hari Kishan's associate, a man called Mukesh who he had met two months ago, the police said, knew a person at the security agency that provided guards to the cash replenishment agency that fills bank ATMs. Mukesh, they said, wanted a big heist so that he could buy a big house.
Ten days before the robbery, Hari Kishan's team ran dry runs. Though he now regrets picking Defence colony - with its heavy media and police presence, he said - Hari Kishan has told the police that he was fairly confident he wouldn't get caught despite having chosen a high-profile area. He reckoned, the police said, that he had at last five days before the police would trace him.
For the robbery, Hari Kishan used a Hyundai car. He had with him his brother Deepak and two others. They intercepted the van of a cash replenishment agency and drove away with it after shooting a security guard who resisted them. The guard succumbed to the bullet injury. Hari Kishan has confessed that he shot the guard dead, the police claimed.
On the night after the robbery, Hari Kishan and his wife sat in their car outside their home, afraid that the police would arrive any moment. Deepak was arrested the day after the robbery.
Hari Kishan, who has reportedly said that he was debt-ridden after a business failed to take off, has told the police he had no idea that the bank van was carrying Rs 5 crores. His share of the spoils was Rs 1.56 crore, the police said. The police have so far recovered Rs 2.41 crore; Hari Kishan has reportedly told them that the rest of the loot is hidden in Delhi.
The police say as soon as their investigations pointed Hari Kishan's way, they put his friends on surveillance. They expected him to flee to Banda in UP, where a relative lives. Hari Kishen, they say, bought a second hand Honda City to go to Banda by road. He told them during interrogation that he could't risk being caught at the railway station through CCTV cameras installed there.
Hari Kishen has been in jail before. In 2008, the police said, he was caught in Delhi's Shakarpur when he shot at someone. He was in jail till 2010 and had an accident soon after his release. He had to have a rod inserted in his leg and still limps.