Thursday, 11 January 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The prime accused of the Reliance Jewels robbery case Shashank Singh (25) was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Wednesday. He was arrested from Bihar’s Patna on Saturday. Two robbers associated with Shashank were allegedly planning to contest the Bihar assembly elections in 2025. The Dehradun senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh said that the police have got crucial information during the interrogation of the accused regarding the jewellery looted in the robbery. The booty was sent to Nepal and some other places as per the accused and the police are working to recover it. He said that Shashank said that he came in contact with a robber and his accomplice named Subodh Singh who used to run the gang that committed robberies through a man named Roshan Singh. After Roshan was murdered, Shashank became an active member of Subodh’s gang and started committing robberies. He, along with Subodh and his other associates, had committed a robbery of 28 kilogrammes of gold in the Mannapuram Gold store in West Bengal’s Barrackpore in 2016 and about 55 kilogrammes of gold in the Muthoot Finance Branch in West Bengal’s Asansol in 2017. Shashank and Subodh along with their accomplices were sent to jail after the 2017 robbery, SSP said. He stated that Shashank, Subodh and their accomplice Rajeev Kumar Singh alias Pullu Singh alias Sardar used to plan all the robberies from the jail itself. They used to contact the other gang members through virtual SIMs from jail. The SSP said that Shashank revealed during the interrogation that several cases were registered against Subodh and Rajeev in various states and they told him that they needed to get bail in their old cases and will not directly contact the gang as they wanted to contest the Bihar Assembly Elections in 2025. “They told Shashank that only he will talk to the gang members about the robbery related tasks via mobile phone. They will talk to the gang members only when it is essential. According to Shashank, they promised him to get him out on bail and give him Rs 50 lakh to Rs one crore in return. He agreed to their terms and started operating the entire gang.” Singh said that Subodh and Rajeev were also involved in planning the robbery in Gujarat’s Mehsana along with Shashank that failed after one of their members was arrested on Sunday. The police have also got other important information from Shashank regarding the case and other criminals which will be disclosed soon, SSP added.
