New Delhi, Nov 16 (Inditop.com) Delhi police Monday claimed to have busted a gang of burglars with the arrest of five men, who used to sometimes set fire to the houses they burgled in order to remove evidence of the crime. A large number of stolen goods were recovered from their possession.
The accused – Sanjay, Ratan, Vishwajeet Bishwas, Mahender and Narender Singh – were arrested Sunday from Harkesh Nagar area in south Delhi on the basis of a tip-off, police said.
“During the past few months, a spurt in burglaries was witnessed in some areas of south Delhi. What was even more disconcerting was that the burglars were setting the houses on fire after stealing expensive jewellery, electronics goods and other items from the houses,” said a senior police officer.
“The gang was operating both during the daytime and night. We got information that some of the stolen material was hidden near a railway line in Harkesh Nagar. A team was formed, information was developed and finally the five accused were arrested Sunday from a house in Harkesh Nagar area,” the police officer added.
A large number of stolen goods including gold and silver jewellery, silver utensils, eight laptops, a handycam and a CD player, two mobile phones, four imported watches and 300 US dollars were recovered from the house.
The police claimed to have solved at least 14 cases with the arrest of the five men.
“On interrogation, they revealed that they used to search for houses that were locked. Their usual mode of entry was by cutting the iron grill of a window, preferably on the rear of the house. On some occasions, they also set fire to the houses after committing burglary,” the police officer said.
“They believed that setting fire to the burgled house would remove all evidence of their crime including finger prints. They also thought that the dog squad would not be able to track them later,” the officer added.
“They mainly operated in the residential localities of Kidwai Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, R.K. Puram and Kotla Mubarkpur in Delhi as they had good knowledge of these areas,” the officer said.
