NEW DELHI: India’s metros witness huge inflows of floating population, coming in for various reasons ranging from business to pleasure. In Delhi and NCR – India’s only megapolis – even crime finds its way from other cities and states. There are many cases where miscreants reach the city, commit crimes and clandestinely leave like any other normal person, leaving the cops scratching their heads to find them.
However, this time, with a foolproof strategy, the Delhi Police managed to catch a 33-year-old man, a resident of Chennai, who used to come to the city to commit robberies.
Sharing details of the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Rohit Meena said that a case was registered at Anand Vihar police station on September 4 in which the complainant stated that an unknown person stole his smartphone while he was at the Golds Gym, Anand Vihar. A case was registered and a team was formed which first collected the CCTV footage of the scene of crime and informers were roped in to nab the accused.
The culprit’s modus operandi was supposedly foolproof, said the DCP. “As seen in the CCTV footage, he moved around most streets to evade tracing used multiple public transport and walked back to his hotel. The team graphed the exit and entry routes of the accused,” the DCP said.
Cops scanned over 200 CCTVs in a radius of 15 km. The team was able to zero in on the burglar through CCTV footage from a place of stay in Old Delhi – more than 15 km from the scene of the crime.
The accused, Jaya Kumar, a resident of Chennai, Tamil Nadu was identified and apprehended soon after.
During interrogation, Jaya Kumar disclosed that he committed inter-state robberies as it became very easy for him to evade police attention. He further disclosed his modus operandi that he used to travel to Delhi from Tamil Nadu by train and stayed in budgeted hotels in Paharganj.
“He usually stays on rent for around five days and travelled all around Delhi and NCR by public transport. He located crowded places and easy targets like Hospitals, Gyms, Banks & Malls and then after thorough recce committed the crime,” the senior police official said. After continuing for some five days he used to return to Chennai with all the stolen goods and hand it over to one Abdul Bashir.
The accused stated that Delhi is one of his go-to places to commit robberies as there are a lot of rich residents. “He came for nearly 5 in a month and he has been doing it continuously since November 2021,” the DCP said adding the accused operated in such a way that he had never been caught by the police before.
Footage from over 200 CCTVs scanned
The cops scanned over 200 CCTVs in a radius of 15 km. The team was able to zero in on the burglar through CCTV footage from a place of stay in Old Delhi – more than 15 kms from the place of the robbery. The culprit’s modus operandi was supposedly foolproof, said the DCP. “As seen in the CCTV footage, he moved around most streets to evade tracing used multiple public transport and walked back to his hotel. The team graphed the exit and entry routes of the accused,” the DCP said.