Case File | How a robber with a toy gun proved a tough nut to crack for cops

Despite CCTV cameras present along the robber's route, the police scrambled to find a man who stole jewellery from a store at Kohat Enclave market near Pitampura, a few days before Independence Day. Here's how they finally caught him:

New Delhi: On August 13, in the run-up to the 76th Independence Day celebration, the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) was on high alert. At around 1 pm, three hours after the full dress rehearsal by the security forces for the official ceremony concluded, members of the special staff of northwest district police were celebrating the arrest of a suspect wanted in the Jahangirpuri rioting case. The team leader, inspector Amit Kumar, was then informed by the district control room about a robbery at gunpoint in a jewellery store in Kohat Enclave market near Pitampura.

The robbery took place in broad daylight, when there was heavy police deployment for the I-Day celebrations.  (Getty Images)

The robbery took place in broad daylight, when there was heavy police deployment for the I-Day celebrations. This caused panic among the top brass of the district police and they directed inspector Kumar to rush to the spot with his team and assist the local Subhash Place police in solving the case.

At the jewellery store, the team members learnt that the robbery was committed by a man who entered the shop with his face covered with a handkerchief and carrying a plastic bag. He posed as a customer, saying he wanted to buy a gold chain for his wife. Apart from the shop owner Anurag Garg, his employee Chhote Lal was also present.

When Garg displayed his nine best heavy gold chains, the masked man whipped out an object that looked like a firearm, held it in his right hand, and threatened to kill Garg and his employee if they raised an alarm. He then put his left hand in the plastic bag and pointed it towards them by saying he was holding a long knife hidden in the bag.

Frightened, the shop owner and his employees did not put up any resistance. The suspect collected all the gold chains — worth around ₹15 lakh — and rushed out of the shop.

The entire incident was recorded by two CCTV cameras installed inside the shop and another one outside, police officers associated with the case said.

“Everything happened in less than 10 minutes. Because three CCTV cameras were recording the incident, we were confident that the case could be cracked soon. But when we examined the video footage, we found that the suspect executed the robbery alone — that too using a toy pistol. Our confidence evaporated as the crime did not look like the handiwork of any gang or habitual robber,” said an investigator, who did not want to be named.

As the CCTV trail of the suspect went cold after nearly two kilometres, the police probe hit a roadblock. The crime was declared a “blind robbery case”. The police also did not have any information regarding the armed robbery or the suspect in the criminal network circle of the northwest district and other adjoining districts such as Rohini, North and Outer-North, the police said.

So close, yet so far

Apart from the special staff, three more teams were tasked with identifying and nabbing the suspect, who appeared to be in his 30s. The teams scanned over 150 CCTV cameras along the robber's escape route. The footage showed that after coming out of the lane where the jewellery shop was located, the robber crossed the main road near the Kohat Enclave metro station, walked nearly 300 metres towards Madhuban Chowk and boarded an e-rickshaw. He got down near a petrol pump in Prashant Vihar and went in a direction that did not have any CCTV camera coverage.

Investigators suspected that the driver of the e-rickshaw may be an associate of the suspect and part of the robbery plan. To identify the e-auto, they minutely examined the video footage for unusual identification marks. On the back of the e-rickshaw was a banner advertisement for a gold finance company.

The police made painstaking efforts to identify the battery-operated rickshaw. After scanning nearly 350 e-rickshaws plying within a radius of around 10 kilometres, the special staff team finally found the e-rickshaw and its driver, two days after the robbery.

“We interrogated the driver and showed him the video grab of the suspect. The driver told us that the robber booked his vehicle for Mukarba Chowk for ₹80. However, he got down mid-way, gave him a ₹100 note and asked him to keep the balance and fled in a hurry. We verified the antecedents of the driver and did not find him a suspect. Thus our investigation was back to square one,” a second investigator said.

The first breakthrough

Since the video trail was lost, the investigators went back to the jewellery store. They spoke with the owner and the employees, and re-scanned the footage from the three cameras. They hoped that the shirt the suspect was wearing could lead them somewhere as it had double collars — white and blue. The police personnel scanned for a similar shirt both online and offline. But it did not provide any clues.

The investigators then turned their attention to the plastic bag that the robber was carrying. It had something written in English on it. When the video grab was developed and enlarged, the police could see that the website address of a uniform-making company, pcmuniforms.com, was printed on the bag. Through an internet search, the police found that a company with a similar name operated from an office in Saket in south Delhi, said deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Usha Rangnani.

The special staff team reached the Saket office and learnt that the company’s other office was in Pitampura, which was not too far from the Kohat Enclave market where the robbery took place. The team members went to the Pitampura office and learnt that the company supplied uniforms to two private schools — one at Shalimar Bagh and the other at Nangli Poona on GT Road.

“As the Pitampura school was close to the crime spot, we suspected the robber could be someone working there or the father of a student. We got our first break in the case. Our next task was to identify the suspect. It was difficult because the potential pool of suspects was in the hundreds,” said inspector Amit Kumar.

Apart from showing the video of the robbery to the security guards, investigators also activated their informers in residential areas in a radius of two-three kilometres around the school. One of the police informers learnt that a man living in the Ambedkar Nagar area of Shalimar Bagh matched the physical description of the suspect. He was a father of children who were students in the Pitampura school. Importantly, the man had also been arrested in a robbery attempt case a few years ago. Investigators compiled a dossier on that man and found that he was caught red-handed while attempting a bank robbery in the Prashant Vihar area in 2019.

“We zeroed in on that man after discovering that the modus operandi in the attempted bank robbery was similar to the robbery at the jewellery shop. In the previous case also, the suspect had used a toy pistol and attempted the robbery alone,” the first investigator said.

After verifying this, the police found that the suspect was spending more time away from his house since the day of the robbery at the jewellery shop. Working relentlessly, the special staff team caught the suspect, identified as 36-year-old Rinku Jindal, near his house on August 25, 12 days after the robbery.

First, denial and then, a confession

Initially, Jindal claimed innocence. But when confronted with the CCTV footage and the recoveries of eight gold chains from his house, the shirt he wore at the time of the robbery and the plastic bag, he confessed. Jindal disclosed that he had stolen nine gold chains and brought all of them home.

When his wife asked him about them, Jindal told her that he had found them wrapped in a cloth that was lying on a road. While eight chains were recovered, the police asked him about the ninth one. He told them that he had mortgaged the chain at a gold finance bank and collected ₹2.60 lakh.

“Jindal lost ₹1.5 lakh in online gambling and spent ₹20,000 on his daily needs while ₹90,000 was recovered from him. A form that he had filled at the bank for taking the gold loan was seized as evidence. Jindal claimed that he committed the robbery for quick and easy money. He did not have a permanent source of income. The family’s livelihood depended on his father's pension,” said DCP Rangnani.

The robber

A senior police officer who interrogated Jindal said the 36-year-old had big ambition, but failed at pursuing all of them. The officer said that since his childhood, Jindal was inspired by Bollywood. In 2015, Jindal created a YouTube channel and uploaded his dance videos.

To pursue his dreams of becoming an actor, Jindal went to Mumbai around six years ago and stayed there for nearly six months. He ran from from one production house to another to get a break in the Hindi cinema industry.

“Despite his best efforts, Jindal could not find any job in the film industry and was running short of money. So he returned to Delhi,” the officer said.

Perhaps upset with the setback, Jindal laid low for a few months. But his aspirations returned and he then wanted to become a playback singer. He uploaded a couple of videos of him singing on YouTube. But when this too did not lead anywhere, Jindal tried his luck at becoming a stand-up comedian. He performed on stage at some religious and political events in Delhi. He also uploaded a video of one performance online, another police officer said.

“A glance at Jindal’s YouTube channel shows that he is quite a versatile artist but could not succeed in his aspirations due to the lack of proper guidance. His dance moves in the videos are interesting and so are his jokes as a stand-up comedian. It seems that his failures prompted him to opt for the path of crime to earn easy money,” the officer said.

“When we asked Jindal how he got the idea for the robberies, he told us that he had a film script in his mind and executed everything according to the plot. Even his crimes were inspired by his aspirations!” added the officer.