Man lands in net for robbing journalist

A 30-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly robbing, with his associates, a television journalist at gun-point in January this year.

The robbery had taken place outside the victim’s residence in east Delhi’s Mandawali area on January 12 this year. The victim, a reporter working with Zee News, had arrived home at about 2:30 am and was parking his car when five members of a gang arrived in another car and held him at gun-point.

“They robbed him of all his belongings, including a gold ring,” said a senior police officer. The arrested man Mayank Goswami, 30, is allegedly a member of the notorious Chhotey Lal Gang. Along with Lal, Pradeep, Dheeraj and Chahar, Goswami was returning drunk from a discotheque in south Delhi when they saw the victim parking his car.

A case was registered in this regard and police went through CCTV footages from the area.

The footage revealed that the car used in the robbery was a white Santro and had a carrier at the top. Its rear windshield had a white sticker.

Police claimed that following the clue, more than 100 Santro cars with such a description were checked since the incident.

Goswami was ultimately arrested from Mandawali area on March 7 and the car used in the robbery recovered from him. He has confessed to the crime. He was earlier arrested in a case of kidnapping registered at Mansaorvar Park police station in 2008.

Less than 10 days after the robbery, Chhotey Lal was killed by his gang member Dheeraj in Uttar Pradesh’s Loni area. The murder accused was nabbed soon after.

Hunt is now on for Pradeep and Chahar. Pradeep has allegedly been involved in cases of attempt to murder, robbery, and thefts and cases against him have been registered in Delhi and Loni.