With the arrest of the three, the police claimed to have solved six cases. (Representational)
Three men have been arrested days after a 30-year-old pilot of a private airlines was allegedly assaulted and robbed at gunpoint on IIT flyover in southwest Delhi, police on Tuesday.
The accused -- Rahul, 24, P Silva, 22, and Aasish, 24, all residents of Madangir in south Delhi -- were identified with the help of CCTV footage and technical surveillance, they said.
Rahul was recently released on parole for 45 days, they said. With the arrest of the three, the police claimed to have solved six cases.
The trio earlier used to commit crimes using the "Thak Thak" modus operandi in which they used to divert attention of the victims by making some excuse and then commit robbery.
However, since the traffic on roads significantly decreased after the lockdown was imposed, they took to armed robberies to meet their needs, police said.
On the intervening night of June 2 and 3, the pilot was on his way to Indira Gandhi International Airport in his office cab from Faridabad when the three men on two-wheelers intercepted the vehicle on IIT flyover and took his wallet which contained Rs 10,000 and other essential documents.
They looted the pilot at gunpoint and when he resisted, they attacked him with a knife, police said.
An Emergency Response Vehicle (EVR) of the police which was patrolling the area managed to chase two of the assailants till Mehrauli but they managed to escape.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Devender Arya said during investigation it was found that the crime was committed by criminals residing in Madangir area who were part of "Thak Thak" gang.
One of them -- Rahul -- was arrested after the police conducted raids, he said.
Rahul then disclosed the names of his associates who were also later arrested, he added.
"During interrogation, Rahul disclosed that he formed his own Thak-Thak gang and started committing theft by breaking windows of cars parked outside shopping malls and other isolated stretches.
"On the day when they robbed the pilot, they gathered in Madangir and hatched a plan to rob someone. While they were roaming on the street and looking for a potential target, they saw the victim and robbed him at gunpoint," the DCP said.
They also broke the window of the car using baseball bats. After their arrest, they also admitted to their involvement in several other robberies, he said.
Two scooter used in the crime, a country-made pistol with one live round, two knives and the robbed Aadhaar card of the pilot was recovered, the police said.