Police to deposit Rs 4.85 cr recovered from Lajpat Nagar heist

Delhi Police has decided to deposit in government treasury around Rs five crore recovered from those arrested in the sensational Lajpat Nagar heist case in which Rs 7.69 crore were looted in south Delhi in January this year.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police had recovered Rs 4.82 crore cash and nabbed 13 people, including a juvenile and a Haryana police Head Constable, in this case.

"We are going to obtain an order from the court to deposit the Rs 4.82 crore in the government treasury. It is upto the court to decide who does the money belong to," said a senior police official.

Businessman Rajesh Kalra, to whom the money apparently belonged to, has not been able to establish the source of the huge amount of money.

Police had already intimated the Income Tax department in this regard and has written to the Enforcement Directorate.

Accused identified as Gulzar Ali alias Bhola, Praveen Kumar, Tilakraj Lohiya alias Tinku, Satish Tripathi, Joginder alias Johny, Ajay Nagarwal, Sunil Kumar alias Kake, Shiv Shakti alias Shakti, Pradeep alias Machhender, Prem Singh and Haridas alias Pandey have been arrested in the case so far.

Apart from them, Haryana police Head Constable Sandeep Kumar, who had let off one of the accused after keeping a big chunk of the cash recovered from him, was also arrested.

A juvenile, who scripted the entire loot, has also been detained in the case, police said.Shakti and Machhender were the key henchmen who carried out the loot in which a Honda City was hijacked along with Rs 7.69 crore from south Delhi's upscale Lajpat Nagar area on January 28.

Police were able to crack the case after they found that businessman Rajesh Kalra's juvenile office boy had scripted the heist along with his relatives Ajay and Shakti Naidu who roped in Machhender's gang. Ajay was nabbed after Naidu surrendered before the Saket court.

In the January 28 robbery, the biggest ever in the national capital, around seven armed men intercepted a Honda City car near Lajpat Nagar Metro station early morning and fled with the vehicle and Rs 7.69 crore in cash.