Ghaziabad: A businessman carrying Rs 25 lakh in a bag was stopped right in the middle of Delhi-Meerut Expressway by armed men who blocked his Thar with two cars, held a pistol to his head and fled with the cash.The robbery took place around 7pm on Friday, when traffic continued to pass around the vehicle, oblivious to the crime the gang carried out inside the Thar.Gillaman, a Meerut businessman who owns a factory recycling waste material, was driving to Jafrabad in Delhi with his cousin Samad and relative Saleem to pay for supplies. He left Meerut around 5pm and reached Dasna in a couple of hours, when he was stopped on the expressway.“A Scorpio overtook us a few times. Then suddenly, the driver signalled us to stop. I applied the brakes and pulled over by the expressway,” Gillaman told TOI.According to police, five men emerged from the Scorpio and began searching the Thar frantically, as if to look for something. Another car stopped behind them. The men claimed their sister had been kidnapped for marriage and that they were looking for her. When Gillaman told them to leave because they had stopped the wrong car, the situation turned violent.“They whipped out a pistol and pointed it to my head. I was shocked. When my cousin tried to intervene, they attacked him with the butt of a revolver,” he said.The men found the bag containing the cash and left the Thar. The entire assault spanned around 10 minutes. “All this while, two persons pointed a pistol at my head. They then got out one by one and escaped in their vehicles,” Gillaman said.ACP (Wave City) Priyashri Pal said an FIR was registered against unknown persons under Section 309(4) of the BNS for robbery. “Five teams are working on the case. CCTV footage showed the accused had followed the victim from Meerut in two cars — a Swift and a Scorpio. We have detained three suspects and seized both cars. Questioning is underway to find out more about the others in the gang,” she added.The robbery comes months after a similar highway crime on adjacent NH-9. Around 1pm on May 6, a cash van of financial services firm India-1 stopped near an HP petrol pump to replenish an ATM. Three men approached the vehicle after the cashiers and gunman stepped out, pointed weapons at the driver and demanded that the gate be opened. One fired in the air when he refused. The gang overpowered him, drove away with the van and escaped with nearly Rs 27 lakh.
