Cops bust gang involved in 19 daytime burglaries; one held

The city police on Saturday night arrested one member of a gang for its alleged involvement in at least 19 daytime burglaries in six residential areas across the

The city police on Saturday night arrested one member of a gang for its alleged involvement in at least 19 daytime burglaries in six residential areas across the city over the last six months, said the police.

HT Image

The gang used to target only locked houses in areas such as sectors 5, 14, 53, 54, 56, 57, Sushant Lok-1 and Palam Vihar, said Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime).

“The gang members had a common mode of operation. They used to target locked houses and ring the doorbell at least thrice. If no one answered within 10 minutes, they used to break the lock and ransack the house,” he said.

The police said more than 50 theft cases were reported in the month of October alone from across the city.

Sangwan said after the lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 was announced, many families had left the city between March and April and returned after a gap of three months. He said they received calls from these areas, informing the police that their houses were targeted and cash and valuables were missing. In many cases, the burglars had even taken away television sets and groceries.

The suspect has been identified as Suresh Singh alias Sonu of Chawla in Delhi. As per the police, he has revealed the names of three of his close aides, although the police are yet to arrest them. The gang members became operational six years ago and, since then, have been allegedly involved in more than 100 cases of burglary across the city. The police are working to identify more cases the gang members might have been involved in. They recovered CCTV footage from different areas and formed teams to look for the suspects. The footage gave the police leads on the location where the suspects were seen scouting repeatedly.

The police said Singh is a history-sheeter who served time in Bhondsi, Tihar, Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh jails over the last six years. He along with his gang members would usually steal items such as cash, jewellery and laptops, which are usually easier to carry in bags. However, due to lockdown, they picked up whatever they could find, sometimes even things from the kitchen, said the police, adding that they would spend ample time in a house or apartment without any fear.

“During questioning, he revealed they carried out burglaries in locked houses as they were aware people had left for their home towns and would not return anytime soon,” Sangwan said.

The police said FIRs against them have been registered under sections 380 (theft in dwelling house), 454 (house trespass) and 457 (house trespass in night) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC).