A 37-year-old man, arrested on Saturday evening from Haryana’s Palwal district, played an instrumental role in the Rs 5.25 crore heist in Defence Colony last month.

He hatched the conspiracy from scratch to the distribution of looted cash among the accused. Vijay Pandit alias Shyam, a resident of Maidan Garhi in south Delhi, has been involved in 27 cases of murder, kidnapping, robbery and theft. “He spent a long time in jail and was released in 2010. He has also been appearing in court over several pending trial,” said P S Kushwah, additional deputy commissioner of police (south).

After he was released from jail, Vijay married a woman from Jatola village in Palwal last year. “He dreamt of doing something big and wanted to commit a big crime before settling with his wife outside Delhi,” Kushwah added.

To fulfil his dream, the 37-year-old hatched the plan with his old associates. They took a fortnight to hatch a near-perfect plan, which included collection of logistics, arrangement of vehicle, weapons and houses.

His other associates visited his house in Maidan Garhi several times, and on the day of the robbery they all started from IGNOU Road. He left his car at Khoka Market in Saket and reached near the crime scene.

“In order to keep their energy levels high, he and Ranjeet also had liquor,” Kushwah said. After the heist, Vijay collected his booty from mastermind Hari Kishan’s house in Khirki village and reached his house in Maidangarhi. Then he took his wife and ailing daughter and fled to Gurgaon.

He gave two major portions of the looted money to his two relatives, and then fled towards Mewat to seek new hideouts. He had been on the run since then, knowing that police would close in.

He spent his time with his criminal friends with whom he had been in Gurgaon jail.
However, he ran out of his luck when he could not resist meeting one of his close relatives in Palwal. He spent the last night before his arrest at Jahangirpur village in Noida at the house of one of his distant relatives.

“Vijay got Rs 90 lakh as his share, out of which Rs 86 lakh has already been recovered from his relatives Tek Chand and Krishan Kumar,” Kushwah added.

He spent the rest of the money for a trip to Haridwar and for spending time in several hideouts in the NCR for a week.

He was arrested on Saturday evening at Palwal bus stand, where he came to meet one of his relatives. A Maruti car used in reconnaissance in the crime was also recovered from him.

A police team also conducted raids in Rewari and Gurgaon in search of one of Vijay’s close associates, to whom he had given the weapons used in the crime and the remaining cash. But the accused left his house before the police team could reach there. Efforts are being made to arrest him.

Till now, 10 persons have been arrested in the case.