Uttarakhand Police arrests key accused in Maharashtra robbery case from Haryana

The Dehradun Police arrested the key accused of robbery of a jewellery store in Maharashtra’s Sangli, a police official said. He was also involved in the dacoity of a jewellery store in Dehradun.

The accused, identified as Anil Soni alias DSP, was arrested from Yamunanagar in Haryana on January 16.

Dehradun senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ajai Singh said, “Soni, a key accused in the jewellery store in Maharashtra’s Sangli, was also involved in Dehradun jewellery store robbery. He had conducted a recce of the jewellery store.”

The Maharashtra Police on January 9 had reached Dehradun to take key accused Prince Kumar, who was arrested from Bihar by the city police for his involvement in the Dehradun robbery case, to take him to Sangli for their investigation into the robbery at a jewellery showroom in Sangli.

According to the local police, Prince Kumar and his 8 accomplices had targeted a jewellery showroom in the Vishrambag area of Sangli district in June last year and looted jewellery 11 kg items worth ₹ 6 crores. The accused had disguised themselves as police officers to commit the crime.

Prince Kumar, who was arrested by the city police from Bihar in December 2023, was carrying a reward of ₹ 2 lakh on his head.

The accused has a history of involvement in serious crimes like murder, attempt to murder and robbery, the police said.

Recently, the police in Dehradun in a joint operation with Gujarat Police arrested one of the members of the Bihar based gang behind the spate of robberies across states when he was on the recce of a jewellery store in Mehsana.

“Our teams have been conducting raids in different states and gathering relevant information for our investigation into the Reliance Jewellery showroom. We got an input that members of a Bihar-based gang, run by key accused in the Dehradun robbery case Shashank Singh (25), on behalf of jewel thief Subodh Kumar, were planning to carry out a major robbery in Mehsana,” Ajai Singh had said.

“We shared this information with our counterparts in Gujarat and stationed a team there. After collection of necessary inputs about the accused, we arrested Vikas Kumar, a member of Shashank’s gang, in a joint operation with the Gujarat Police when he was on the recce of the jewellery store on their radar,” he added.

On November 9, five people robbed jewellery worth at least ₹14 crore from a Reliance Jewellery showroom in Dehradun. The accused held the staff at gunpoint and directed them to fill the jewellery in bags. Before escaping, they tied the hands of customers and shop employees, and locked them in the shop’s pantry. A case was registered at Kotwali police station in Dehradun on the complaint of the store manager.

The leader of Bihar based gang lodged in Beur jail of Patna, which carried out gold robberies in different states across the country, planned to contest Bihar Assembly elections scheduled to take place in 2025, Dehradun police on January 11 said after questioning the mastermind of Reliance Jewellery showroom robbery Shashank Singh. The police are still trying to connect the dots of the case as it is yet to get success in the recovery of looted items from the jewellery showroom in the state capital.