The Delhi police have recently arrested the courteous gang, the ‘Namaste Gang’ from the capital. Four members of this gang robbed over 60 people at gunpoint.
The robbers stopped elderly persons on the road and greeted them with a ‘Namaste’ and acted like someone whom they might know. As soon as the commuters stopped to greet them back, the gangsters threatened them with a gun and looted them.
The gangsters then sold the looted items and bought luxurious cars like Audi and Range Rover with the money. Many incidents were also captured on CCTV cameras. According to police, the criminals involved in these activities for the past three years and also they had bought some flats.
The four members were identified as Sakawat (32), Nisimuddin (32), Guljar (29) and Naim (21). They told the police that generally, they targeted old people wearing gold jewellery. One of the gang members would ride parallel to the target car in their scooter and would smile at the driver and greet ‘Namaste’ and signalled them to stop.
The robbers then assumed that they knew the target. The victims then stopped the vehicle and waited for them. One of the accused then started a conversation with the victim from the right side of the vehicle and would then point a gun at him/them and threatened. The victim or victims would hand over all the valuable things they have with them.
Joint commissioner of police (south-western range), Dependra Pathak said, “The men always took the wrong direction while fleeing so that nobody could catch hold of them.”
Vijay Kumar, the deputy commissioner of police (west) said, “A team led by ACP (Punjabi Bagh) Ankit Chauhan and SHO Rajeev Bhardwaj was formed and after getting clues, the four accused were nabbed after a brief encounter and over 50 cases of robbery at gunpoint were solved with their arrests.”
Police said in 2010, Naseem came in contact with Mustafa. They cheated people by selling dummy mobile phones in which Naseem was jailed. After his release from the jail, he met Sakawat and decided to form a gang to rob the elderly people with a new style, greeting people with ‘Namaste’ and then robbed.
After the robbery, they used to take the wrong carriageway to mislead the victims. Police received 60 similar cases from all over the city. They recovered three firearms, three live cartridges and a knife from them.
