New Delhi, January 16
With the arrest of eight persons and recovery of jewellery worth around Rs 10-12 crore, joint police teams of Delhi and Chandigarh investigators have cracked the sensational case of Tanishq showroom dacoity at Manimmajra, Chandigarh, on the intervening night of January 11 and 12. The crime was committed by around 12 persons.

Besides the jewellery, the police also seized 1,000 mobiles (worth over Rs 1 crore) from the accused. The mobile phones were allegedly stolen from a showroom in Delhi in an earlier case along with a cash amount of around Rs 2.5 lakh.

Addressing a press conference at the Delhi Police headquarters here, Delhi Police Commissioner Brijesh Gupta said the cracking of case could be attributed to the joint efforts of the Delhi and Chandigarh Police.

“It was a joint effort. The Chandigarh Police shared with us the crucial information related to the men involved in the case and our team from south district made the first arrest in the case following which others involved in the case were arrested and the stolen jewellery recovered,” said Gupta.

According to him, those arrested were: Paras Soni (26), kingpin of the gang, Manav Soni (24), Bhura Qureshi (28), Upender Singh (19), Anuj Kumar (21), Ajay Singh (24), Bhura Tomar (18) and Sonu Raghav (19). All of them are residents of Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh. Four accused identified as Ali Raja, Umar Daraj, Satinder and Nadeem were still absconding, he added.

According to Gupta, the first breakthrough in the case came when Bhura Qureshi was arrested from PVR Priya, Vasant Vihar, along with some looted jewellery.

“On interrogation, Qureshi said Paras Soni and 10 others were also involved in the daring dacoity at Chandigarh. The Chandigarh Police was also informed and their team also joined the further operation,” said Gupta. On the basis of information provided by Qureshi, a joint raid was conducted by the Delhi and the Chandigarh Police.

The team managed to arrest Paras Soni along with his younger brother Manav Soni.

“At the instance of Paras Soni, his five other associates, namely Upender, Ajay, Bhura Tomar, Sonu and Anuj, all resident of Bajkhera Pilkhua village in UP, were also arrested,” Gupta said.