Patna, May 22: Three city-based students were arrested today after they carried out a dacoity on May 8 to earn some fast money.
Almost a fortnight after the boys had carried out a daylight dacoity in the apartment of Nilu Singh, a retired professor of JD Women’s College and a resident of Arya Apartment at Patel Nagar area under Shastri Nagar police station, the police today claimed to have solved the case. Among the five people arrested, two of them are students of Class X and XII of two city-based schools while the third is an Intermediate science student.
The boys have confessed to their involvement in the crime. The kingpin, Vaibhav Vishal, a student of Class X of DAV Shastri Nagar School wanted to enjoy life and needed a lot of money for the same, said the police.
His friend Ravi Kumar, a plus-II student of the city-based LBS School also wanted a bit of fun and agreed to help Vaibhav as they both hatched a plan to rob the house of a professor, who lived alone mostly.
“The plan was almost perfect with the boys giving a thought to all the details. They got in touch with one Amit Kumar, a resident of the same area, who has an ironing shop below Arya Apartment. Most of the residents of the building gave him their clothes and the man knew about each household. He knew how many people lived in each of the flats and when the flats would be empty or minimally occupied,” Patna senior superintendent of police Alok Kumar said.
He added: “Amit knew that Nilu Singh, who lived on the second floor, used to live alone mostly and that her children were settled abroad. The man knew she had many valuables in her flat and thus she was zeroed-in as a target.”
The three took the help of two more men for execution of their plan. “They roped in Raju Kumar, a student of Intermediate science who agreed to help them. They then got in touch with one Rajesh Kumar Yadav, who owns a betel shop. He was given the task of selling the looted valuables,” Alok said.
The incident took place around 2pm when the boys got into her house and allegedly assaulted and locked her up in a bathroom.
“The boys took away her ATM card after forcing her to divulge the personal identification number (PIN) and Rs 48,000 was withdrawn by swiping the card. Among other valuables looted were Rs 72,000 in cash, gold jewellery, silver utensils, a camera, a mobile phone. The total worth of the loot was around Rs 5 lakh,” Alok said.
He added: “The boys had given away the gold jewellery and silver utensils to Rajesh Yadav, who hid them in his home in Madhubani district so that they could be sold off later. The police had formed a special team, who in the course of investigation identified these people and arrested them. All the stolen items have been recovered.”
Alok said since incidents of children getting into crime is on the rise, parents had a big responsibility on their hands. “It is the parents who can help their children. Such cases are a result of bad company. Parents should look after their children,” he added.
