Udaipur Police have proved their mettle by cracking down on the Robbers in today’s daylight robbery case in the Canara Bank branch at Pula.

Maternal brothers,  Rohit Upadhyay (20) and Nishant Sukhwal (25) were arrested through a smart police setup in the evening, just a few hours after they effected the robbery.

As told by SP Rajendra Prasad Goyal, a special team was formed to investigate the Robbery, which was a daring attempt considering the time of the day and the location of the Branch.  The Police team which facilitated the investigations and plan in facilitating the arrest operated under instructions of SP Rajendra Prasad Goyal and consisted of Dr Rajesh Bhardwaj (AdSP City), DySP Madhuri Verma, Ambamata SHO Rajendra Singh, SHO Pratap Nagar Manjeet Singh Shaktawat, SHO Bhuplalpura Chandmal Sighariya, Hathipol SHO Rajesh Sharma, Police Lines RI Abdul Rehman, Special Police Constables DInesh, Ganesh Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Budhh Narayan, Arjun Singh, Kamlesh Kumar, Rakesh, Rajendra Singh, Bajrang, Nandkishore and Suresh.

As per SP Goyal, the Police began their investigation at the Branch which including speaking to staff and other eye witnesses.  This was followed by a physical search for evidence.  During this, they found a Foresight Knob of an Airgun.  Immediately, various dealers were contacted, and the biggest dealer in the city, Shahid confirmed that there had been a recent purchase of an Airgun for Rs. 5,000 from his shop.

The team got into action and told Shahid to contact his customer.  One of the accused, whose name was on the Invoice, was contacted and was asked to come to the shop, after Shahid told him that an important part of the Airgun they had purchased, was missing from their pack and he asked the accused to come to his shop and collect the missing part.

The Police then laid a trap around the shop, and when the accused Rohit came to the shop, he was arrested as a suspect.  The suspects structure, mannerism, walk, etc was checked against the CCTV footage taken from the Bank and it was confirmed that the suspect was indeed once of the robbers.

Rohit was then asked to call his accomplice Nishant to a location at Hiran Magri on some pretext and even he was nabbed, the Police hence consolidating the arrest within 4 hours of the incident.

Rs. 4 lac was found on Rohit and the remaining Rs. 3, 51,500 were recovered from Nishant.  The Police are yet to recover the Helmet, Gloves, Knife and Motorbike that were used during the robbery.  Apart from the cash, a few Bank Passbooks and other important documents were also recovered along with the Airgun used for the robbery.

On further interrogation, it was found that both were Interior Designers by Profession.  They had accumulated losses in their business due to non-recovery of dues and a huge burden of payables.  They decided over time to overcome their losses by looting a Bank.

Ironically, TV and Media played a big role in their take on robbing a Bank.  As per Police, the duo took on the idea to loot a Bank after watching ‘Saavdhan India’ a crime busting program aired on Life OK Channel.   They followed the episodes closely and formulated a seemingly fool proof plan.  The idea of wearing a helmet and hand gloves, Airgun and Knife were taken from there.  This shortcut to meet the requirements and recover their losses seemingly fancied them and they did a 4-5 day recce of the Branch to understand the staff movement, customer timings, and off timings.

Interestingly, both Rohit, belonging to Ganesh Ghati and currently staying at Shanti Nager, Hiran Magri Sector 5 as well as Nishant (aka Monty), residing at Ganesh Ghati are maternal cousins and have no previous crime record.

According to police at around 1.30pm earlier today, the two accused entered the Canara Bank branch at Pula and threatened bank staff with a gun and knife. One of the robbers rushed to the cashier’s room while the other kept an eye on the victims including the bank staff and customers.

In a few minutes the duo fled with Rs.7.5 lakh cash on a motorcycle.

After receiving the information, police officials including Ambamata Police Station’s in-charge Rajendra Singh rushed to the scene and instructed immediate barricading at important entry-exit points of the city.

S.P R.P Goyal informed media that police had started investigations by taking reports from eye witnesses and a CCTV footage was also obtained from the Bank management.

Bank Manager R.L Salvi informed that there are only four staff working at the bank which include two male and two female employees. At the time of incident the manager was not present in the bank.

One of the female employees who witnessed the incident had earlier confirmed that both accused were appeared young and were conversing in Hindi language.  The staff and other eye witnesses had also said that one of the accused was wearing a Helmet and they had one air gun and a knife. During the robbery the accused kept threatening staff and customers to keep silent.

All in all, it was a wonderful effort by the Police in having nabbed the robbers within a few hours of the daring robbery.