Ex-drivers of cine stars held for Rs 3L robbery

MUMBAI:The crime branch on Friday arrested three former drivers of film personalities,including actors Vivek Oberoi and Arman Kohli, in connection with an assault androbbery case. The trio had robbed a make-up artist, Mallika Bhatt, at her Bandraresidence on May 10. The accused have been identified as AsifHussain (25), his cousin Mohammed Imtiyaz (23) and Umesh Sachdeva alias Sonu(26). Sonu worked for Oberoi as a driver and quit the job three months ago.Hussain was employed by Kohli and Imtiyaz worked for director Rajkumar Kohli.They, too, left their jobs a couple of months ago."On the night ofMay 10, the trio entered Bhatt's flat as she had kept the door open for herdriver to bring her make-up material up,'' said an officer. They gagged Bhatt,tied her hands and legs with a mobile charger's cord and took her to thebedroom. "They then forced Bhatt to call her driver and ask him not to come tothe flat. The accused were carrying a revolver,'' crime branch chief RakeshMaria said. The trio fled with jewellery worth Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 38,000 incash. The accused were caught from Santa Cruz and the policerecovered some of the booty from them. The suspects had spent Rs 18,000 onshopping. "They initially planned to abduct a businessman but later dropped theidea fearing it might fail," said assistant inspector Sagar Shivalkar.The suspects admitted to another theft at Kohli's office in 2008.They had stolen Rs 1.27 lakh from the office.