The South-East district of Delhi police on Sunday has arrested a gang of pizza lover who ordered food through Zomato and then allegedly robbed the delivery boys in deserted areas at knifepoint. Police said that the gang had spread panic among food delivery boys in southeast Delhi.

According to the police, the accused has been identified as Deepak (23), Chirag Sharma (23) and Karan Mahajan (19), who robbed pizzas, phones, cash other valuables and two-wheelers of the delivery boys.

Police said that the gang came to light when they committed three robberies within two days between Saturday and Sunday. The robberies were reported to police in which the delivery boys from a pizza outlet in Zamrudpur and two from other restaurants in Malviya Nagar and Kalkaji respectively were robbed in Sriniwaspuri.

"In all three cases, the orders were placed through the Zomato app. The victims were robbed by the three men at knifepoint. During the investigation, we found that the mobile phone used for placing the first of the three orders was registered on someone else's name. For the next two orders the accused had used the mobile phone they had robbed from the first delivery boy," said Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast).

Police said that through technical surveillance, the police tracked down Karan Mahajan and he was arrested from Sriniwaspuri. He further disclosed the locations of his other two associates Deepak and Chirag who were also nabbed.

"During interrogation, the accused have confessed of their involvement in more than a dozen robberies, out of which five have been established so far with recoveries. Further probe revealed that it was Mahajan who was addicted to drugs and could not continue with schooling. His father migrated to the USA a few years ago leaving him and his mother behind. Mahajan allegedly harassed his mother. His mother had filed a domestic violence case against Mahajan and a court had recently warned him not to be seen around 200 meters of her mother's house," said Biswal.

Police have also found that Deepak earlier used to work as a delivery boy for an online shopping portal. Three months ago Deepak was arrested for a car robbery in Amar Colony and he was jailed. After coming out of prison, he met Chirag, who was recently shunted from his job of a delivery boy.

"Both Chirag and Deepak were well versed with the working of the delivery boys of the food delivery portal. "They used to call the delivery boys at secluded places late in the night. Soon as the delivery boys arrived, the accused used to rob them at knifepoint," said Biswal.

A motorcycle, three robbed mobile phones, two ATM card swiping machines, Rs 3,000 cash and five food bags robbed from five delivery boys were recovered from them.