New Delhi: A robbery in a hotel in west Delhi’s Kirti Nagar on Tuesday turned out to be an inside job, with police arresting its night manager for allegedly staging the crime in collusion with a former jailmate and two juveniles. They were also apprehended. According to police, the alleged robbery was reported around 3am on Tuesday, when the complainant, night manager Prince Kumar, claimed that two masked men entered the hotel, threatened him with a knife and looted Rs 83,000 along with a smartphone from the reception. A case was registered and a police team started probing the case.“During the investigation, CCTV footage raised concerns, and Kumar’s behaviour was flagged as suspicious, particularly his attempts to erase data from his phone during questioning. The unusually large amount of cash at the reception, given the modest scale of the hotel, strengthened the suspicion of insider involvement,” additional DCP (west) Sukant S Ballabh said. “Confronted with evidence, Kumar confessed. He revealed that he planned the staged robbery with Ram Kumar Yadav, an acquaintance from jail,” said Ballabh. Kumar deliberately allowed cash to accumulate at the reception over several days before tipping off Yadav, he added. “On the night of the incident, Yadav arrived on a stolen motorcycle with two juveniles. One waited outside while the others entered the hotel with masks and a knife to execute the fake hold-up. Another juvenile working at the hotel was also part of the plan,” the officer said. While police arrested Kumar and Yadav, the juveniles were apprehended. Both Kumar and Yadav have previous criminal records. The stolen mobile phone, Rs 34,440 in cash, the knife and the motorcycle were recovered.
