LAHORE, Sept 12: Police claim to have taken into custody a real estate agent from Gulberg in connection with the probe into a Rs20 million robbery at the residence of a book publisher/seller in Ghalib Market on Monday afternoon.
The agent, Nadeem Iqbal Masih, is said to have helped publisher Shamsul Alam find a tenant, Samar Jan, 24, who is believed to have committed the robbery, for one of the portions of the former’s house about one and a half month ago.
Alam alleges that Samar, his brother, their mother and their two friends had deprived him of cash, jewellery, prize bonds, dowry (of his two daughters) and other valuables worth over 20 million in one of the biggest robberies in the city in the recent years.
Alam, publishing and selling books in Lahore and Gujranwala for the last 30 years, told Dawn on Tuesday that he had rented one of the four ground floor portions of his house to Samar and Salman Chand. He said though Samar claimed that Salman was his brother, the two had no resemblance at all.
“After some time, a woman named Rukhsana, 40, also joined Samar and Salman, claiming to be their mother. She told us that the entire family had now shifted to Lahore from Gujranwala,” Alam said. He said two other people, Saquib and Faisal, also used to visit his tenants.
“Rukhsana managed to enter my house Sunday last in the presence of the would-be in-laws of my daughters and listened to each and every thing we discussed regarding dowry and marriage arrangements,” Alam said.
He said he had already told Rukhsana to vacate the house by Sept 10 because he needed space to accommodate his guests coming for the weddings of his two daughters in November.
“On Monday, Rukhsana came to meet my family for the last time before vacating the rented portion. When my elder daughter opened the door, Rukhsana along with four armed masked men forced into family quarters, tied seven family members and asked for cash and valuables,” he said.
The accused drove away with prize bonds worth Rs9 million, 110 tola gold jewellery, Rs1 million in cash, electronics and crockery, a Suzuki car (LZA 3713) and a brand new motorcycle.
Alam suspected that accused Rukhsana had a face familiarity with real estate agent Nadeem Masih.
When contacted, Ghalib Market police said the agent from Alfalah Estate, Ghalib Market, had been taken into custody in a bid to trace the whereabouts of the accused.