4 held for stealing gold, silver valuables in Delhi

Jitender Singh gave an old almirah from his house to a civil contractor, asking him to sell it to a scrap dealer. Neither knew that the almirah contained gold

A civil contractor was among four men arrested for stealing 70 grams of gold and 20 grams of silver articles worth ₹7 lakh, which a Lajpat Nagar resident, through the contractor, had unknowingly handed over to a scrap dealer inside an almirah, police said on Sunday.

The CCTV footage showed two men reaching Mantu Mandal’s house in the early hours of Thursday on a motorcycle. (Representational image)

Jitender Singh gave an old almirah from his house to a civil contractor, Mantu Mandal, 42, asking him to sell it to a scrap dealer. Mandal did as asked, but when the scrap dealer opened a locker inside the almirah, he found the gold and silver valuables.

The scrap dealer called and informed both Singh and Mandal about his discovery, and handed over the valuables to Mandal, police said.

Singh asked Mandal to return the valuables to him, but Mandal decided to keep them, police said. With the help of three accomplices, Mandal concocted a story that two bike-borne policemen abducted him from his house along with the gold and silver items, abandoned him at an isolated place, and fled with the valuables, police said.

“In the early hours of Friday, Mandal called us to report that he was abducted and the gold and silver valuables were stolen. A case was registered at the Govindpuri police station. But investigators became suspicious because Mandal informed the police about the crime almost a day after it happened,” said additional deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Aishwarya Sharma.

Police checked footage from CCTV cameras around Mandal’s house. The CCTV footage showed two men reaching his house in the early hours of Thursday on a motorcycle. After six minutes, they left along with Mandal and the gold and silver valuables. Through technical investigation, police identified the two bike-borne men as Raj Kumar, 39, and Sarfaraz Gaffar, 43, said deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Hemant Tiwari.

“They were taken into custody and interrogated. They disclosed that they were Mandal’s friends. They also said that another man, Mohammad Yusuf alias Raju, 38, was involved in the crime. Mandal and Raju were also arrested. Raju revealed that he had tried to help Mandal sell the gold and silver items through his employer but the latter had refused,” added Tiwari.