Satyarthi Nobel citation theft: Police matching fingerprints
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police is trying to match the fingerprints collected from Kailash Satyarthi's southeast Delhi residence and the two other houses that were burgled, with their records in connection with the theft of Nobel Peace Prize replica and its citation.
"We had picked up the fingerprints from the three houses and the 12 fingerprints that we have got are being matched with those that exist in our records," a senior police officer said.
Police are also scanning the dump data from mobile phone towers to ascertain whether the burglars, whose records are there with police, were present in the area around the time of the theft, he said.
Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik is closely monitoring the investigation in the matter and has been in touch with the Crime Branch and district police teams that are probing the matter.
Three men have been seen in the CCTV footage gained from the residential area in which the face of one of the accused is covered.
Police are planning to get their sketches made and circulate them.
On the basis of the CCTV footage, there are three-four theories that the teams are working on. Police are currently working on carving out the entry and exit routes of the accused and to decipher their exact motive and modus operandi.
Through the questioning of people residing nearby and analysis of CCTV footage, it has been found that the burglary took place between 1 AM and 4 AM on February 7, police said.
Scrap and jewellery dealers of the area are being questioned in connection with the burglary.
Burglars allegedly decamped with the replica of the Nobel Prize medal and the citation along with a host of other mementoes from around the world and some jewellery from Satyarthi's Kalkaji residence.
Satyarthi, who along with his wife is currently in Panama on the invitation of its President, will be returning on February 10.
Police had said it appeared that the burglars had come with an intention only to rob jewellery as the other expensive items were left untouched.
Two other houses in the same area have also been broken into.
The child rights activist won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. He shared the prize with Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai.
Satyarthi had presented his Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Pranab Mukherjee in January, 2015. The original medal has been preserved and is now on display at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum, his office said.