NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old man, along with his associates, was arrested for allegedly robbing gold chains from his cousin’s jewellery shop in Rohini after spraying pepper spray in the owner’s eyes, police said on Friday.
The accused have been identified as Vishal Verma, 26, from Bahadurgarh in Haryana; Manish Verma, 18, from Kakrola, Dwarka; and Sumit Dabas, 33, from Dwarka Sector-19.
The incident took place on October 4 at B Block, Rohini Sector-18. The shop owner told police that “my cousin Verma, along with one of his accomplices, came to my shop and asked me to show some gold chains, saying his friend wanted to buy a chain.”
According to the complainant, he showed them a tray containing 10–11 gold chains. “After some time, my cousin got up and left the shop while talking on his mobile. After a few seconds, the other person sprayed pepper spray in my eyes, took the tray, and ran away,” he said.
During the investigation, police arrested the three accused. Ten gold chains, Rs 10,000 in cash, a mobile phone, and a money trail of Rs 80,000 in accounts of co-accused and relatives were recovered, Deputy Commissioner of Police Hareshwar Swami said.
Interrogation revealed that Verma and Dabas met in Tihar Jail in December 2024. Verma was in judicial custody in a POCSO case, and Dabas in a murder case. “They met again on October 1 near Ramleela Ground. Both were in dire need of money to pay for legal and personal expenses,” Swami added.
Dabas introduced his cousin Dharmender, who worked as a bouncer at the Ramleela Mela. Verma also brought in his cousin Manish. Together, they hatched the plan to rob the jewellery shop.
The accused hired a cab from Uttam Nagar to carry out the robbery. After the theft, the gold chains were distributed among them, with Verma and Dabas keeping the largest share. They sold one chain to a registered gold exchanger in Gurugram. Verma used part of the money to buy a phone, transferred Rs 50,000 to Manish’s account, and Rs 30,000 to his wife, police said.
The police are also probing whether the group was involved in other similar incidents.
