2 men arrested for stealing iPhone consignment of over 900 handsets

Two men have been arrested in the Indian capital of Delhi for stealing a huge consignment of Apple iPhone 5s mobile phones worth 2.25 crore Indian rupees (£254,219, $336,462). The men confessed they acted with three accomplices and took away more than 900 handsets that were being transported from one part of the city to another, police said Thursday (15 September).

The robbery took place on September 13, but the police were able to nab the culprits soon enough. They are now conducting raids to arrest other members of the gang. The incident took place at a time when India is gearing up for the launch of the latest iPhone 7 in a few weeks.

The robbery took place when a truck carrying the iPhone consignment was headed towards Dwarka in south-west Delhi from Okhla area of south Delhi. Ishwar Singh, deputy commissioner of Police (south), told reporters that the two arrested men – Mehtab Alam, 24, and Arman, 22 – and their accomplices held the truck driver captive for a while and then dumped him after grabbing the booty.

"During investigation it was found that two robbers – Bhola and Pradeep – were the former drivers of the truck, and had left their jobs two weeks ago," the officer was quoted by the Indo-Asian News Service as saying.

"We also found that on the day of the incident both the drivers had followed the same route which was used by the truck carrying the mobile phones," Singh said, adding that the accused have already confessed that they planned the robbery along with their accomplices Bhola, Rahul and Jitender.

The Times of India reported that the accused youths threw chilli powder at the truck driver to force him to stop the vehicle. They then drove the truck to a nearby place where they had parked their own van and transferred the consignment into their vehicle and fled with the booty. But the police, acting on the driver's complaint, tracked the robbers down and arrested them.