Noida: Home guard held for snatching silver bar, another on run

NOIDA: Two men who allegedly duped a driver-helper duo of an Agra-based trader by posing as cops and took a silver bar as a “bribe” in exchange for letting them go without any action were actually home guards attached to two police stations in Noida, police said. The two victims had come to Delhi on Tuesday to procure silver bars for their employer and were robbed by the two homeguards while on their way back the next morning.
While one of the home guards, identified as Vikrant Singh, have been arrested, Umesh, the other accused, is on the run.They are deployed at the Sector 20 and Expressway police stations of Gautam Budh Nagar, respectively. They would dupe people with the help of two others — a jeweller named Shaukinder and another accused, Dharmendra, who would often mediate between the two home guards and their targets, police said.
Around 6.45 am on Wednesday, Vikrant and Umesh on a sports bike intercepted the victims — driver Ajay Kumar and his helper Tanuj, who were returning to Agra in their employer’s Duster — on the expressway.
Posing as cops, the duo wearing khaki soon started checking the boot of the car. And after they found the silver bars, they had asked to see the bill. When Ajay produced the bill, the duo termed it as fake, and insisted that they follow them to the local police station. En route, Vikrant and Umesh compelled the victims to hand over a silver bar, which they picked up and sped away.
Additional DCP (Noida) Ranvijay Singh said that Vikrant owns a KTM bike which the accused would use for committing such crimes. “They have not admitted to any more of such crimes, but it seems they were involved in extortion. Vikrant is deployed at the Sector 20 police station but has been absent for the past six months.” Interestingly, the home guard continued to be absent for so long despite preparations of their attendance muster rolls in the aftermath of the multi-crore home guard payroll scam.