Delhi crime: Fired cabbie resorts to phone snatching to fund vacation, held

A 34-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh was arrested for snatching high-end phones to fund his girlfriend’s vacation. Police traced him using technical surveillance.

New Delhi

Police booked the accused in 11 cases. (Representative photo)

Seeking to fund his girlfriend’s “dream vacation”, a 34-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh went on a snatching spree over the past month, robbing passersby of high-end mobile phones in Dwarka, police said on Tuesday. He was arrested on Sunday while trying to sell seven phones to a shop in Sector 16, Dwarka.

Police identified the suspect as Om Prakash, who recently lost his job as a cab driver, and took to crime to make money for the vacation. In the course of the investigation, police also found that Prakash had stolen a bike in the series of crimes that reportedly started on July 4. He managed to collect ₹1 lakh for the vacation, they said.

On August 4, a biker snatched a phone from a man walking his dog in Sector 4, Dwarka, following which police found leads and traced the suspect. “We were investigating this case when three days later, a woman alleged that her iPhone was snatched while she was going to her office in Sector 4, Dwarka. We found the same bike was used in both the offences. A team was constituted as it was suspected that the offender could be involved in multiple crimes,” deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh said.

An investigator said that technical surveillance and analysis of the bike revealed that it was stolen from Bindapur IN July. “All three cases were with us and we started collecting information of similar cases in which the same bike was involved. Informers were also deployed to identify the accused,” the investigator, not wishing to be named, said.

Another senior police officer said Prakash was “untraceable” as he was changing his hideouts and informers failed to track him as they could not spot the bike. Police then decided to surveil mobile shops and traced him to a shop in Sector 16, Dwarka.

The officer, requesting anonymity, said, “We knew he had an iPhone and a OnePlus phone among other expensive phones that he needed to sell. We sent teams in and around Dwarka to look for men who buy such robbed phones.”

DCP Singh said Prakash was arrested and his bike was seized. During questioning, Prakash said he lived with his girlfriend in Moradabad. “He told us that his girlfriend wanted to go on a road trip to hill stations but they did not have enough money for hotel stays. He lost his job last year and she motivated him to commit thefts to make a quick buck,” the DCP said.

Police said Prakash’s girlfriend has a criminal record and will be called for questioning. She has not been named in the FIR, they said.

Prakash has been booked in 11 cases of thefts, all reported over the past month, in Dabri, Dwarka and Bindapur. He was produced in court and lodged in police custody for a week.