Rohan Sharma along with his associates had committed the robbery.

LUCKNOW: The heist in which a professional photographer was lured with a fake birthday-party assignment and made away with expensive camera equipment was allegedly an inside job by his own assistant photography colleague, who according to the police conspired to make quick money and rescue the mortgaged camera due to financial crisis.The crime came to light on Tuesday when photographer-cum-videographer Ashok Yadav, a resident of Ranikheda village under Mal police station area, lodged a complaint at Itaunja police station.He alleged that he was approached by unknown persons for photography and videography coverage of the birthday celebrations and asked to reach near Neelansh Water Park Road around 9.30 pm on Monday.On reaching the spot, four men on two motorcycles allegedly stopped their vehicle, threatened them and fled with professional equipment including six cameras, seven lenses, two gimbals and a mobile phone. The value of the stolen gear is estimated to be around Rs 15 lakh.Assistant Commissioner of Police (BKT) Vikas Pandey, who supervised the investigation, said police cracked the case within a few hours using technical surveillance, local intelligence and interrogation of suspects.Pandey said, “During preliminary interrogation, it emerged that the victim’s photography assistant Rohan Sharma had conspired with his associates to commit the robbery. Rohan was aware of the expensive equipment carried by Ashok and knew his activities and agenda.”According to the ACP, Sharma had worked with Yadav on photography assignments and was also employed at a stationery shop owned by the victim. Financial difficulties allegedly led him to plan the crime.“The accused had mortgaged his own camera, which was worth around Rs 8 lakh, and was unable to rescue it. He allegedly planned the robbery after seeing that the victim had many new and expensive gadgets. They believed the equipment could be sold quickly for substantial profits,” Pandey said.Police arrested three accused Rohan Sharma, Ramanuj Mishra and Vipin Mishra and recovered the entire stolen property. The fourth accused Vivek is still absconding. Raids are being conducted to catch him.Police found that the conspirators had faked the birthday-party booking to lure the photographer to a secluded place. Rohan allegedly passed on details of the assignment, route and equipment to his associates who carried out the robbery.ACP Pandey said that the victim started suspecting Rohan’s involvement soon after the robbery.During the incident on the night of 1 June, the assailants who stopped his vehicle reportedly held Rohan at gunpoint, but did not harm him, instead instructing him to hand over all the photography equipment (which only he was aware of being carried by him).The victim also observed that Rohan appeared unusually calm and was behaving as if he was familiar with the attackers, raising suspicions that he had prior knowledge of the crime.