Jangpura heist: Suspect visited Delhi twice before burglary

The accused, Lokesh Srivas, was arrested in Chhattisgarh and has multiple cases registered against him.

The 31-year-old burglar who allegedly carried out the dramatic heist in a jewellery store at Bhogal in southeast Delhi had conducted a reconnaissance of the area at least three times, a preliminary probe into the incident found, investigators said on Saturday.

A jewel thief broke into the Umrao Singh Jewellers store in Bhogal Market near Jangpura on Sunday night. The suspect was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

A police officer aware of the matter said that they were yet to examine the accused, Lokesh Srivas, at length because the Bilaspur police made the arrest and sought his police custody there. Delhi Police will be given his production remand after the Bilaspur Police have interrogated him in their cases. They have received a three-day custody of Srivas.

“This is only preliminary information because he is not in our custody as of now and we haven’t been able to formally interrogate him,” the officer said.

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Police said that Srivas stayed at a guest house in Chandni Chowk identified as Rajdhani Guest House. Apart from conducting a recce on September 21, Srivas had visited the city twice earlier for the same purpose, police said.

He first came to Jangpura on September 9 and stayed in Chandni Chowk till September 12 after which he left for Mathura-Vrindavan. He then returned to Delhi on September 15 and stayed till September 17. He then took a bus to Madhya Pradesh from Kashmere Gate.

His final visit to Delhi was on September 21. He arrived at Sarai Kale Khan at 7.30 and headed to Jangpura around 9.20pm for another recce.

Police also said that when Srivas came to Delhi on September 21, he brought two instruments with him—a screwdriver, and a plier—which he used to carry out the heist at Umrao Singh Jewellers in Bhogal. These apart, he bought a disc cutter from GB Road for ₹1,300 and a hammer from Chandni Chowk for ₹100.

“It was already established that he entered the building at 9.45pm on September 24 and came out in the evening of September 25 but he made a hole in the wall of the strong room only after 10.30am on September 25 after making sure that no one was entering the shop. Shops remain closed in the area on Mondays. He exited the building late in the evening after a few open shops had shut for the day,” the officer added.

Delhi investigators have also found CCTV footage from inside the shop which shows Srivas covering his face with a white cloth and disconnecting CCTV wires.

Srivas was arrested from Kabirdham district in Chhattisgarh on Friday morning in a joint operation by the state’s police and the Delhi Police. He has multiple cases registered against him in Chhattisgarh. The arrest came after the south-east district police received information from Chhatisgarh Police that they had arrested a man identified as Lokesh Rao who told assistant sub-inspector Shamit Tiwari, who had arrested him, that one of his associates “had committed a big crime in Delhi”.

Srivas’ photograph was then obtained from the Chhatisgarh Police which matched the body type and appearance of the suspect from the CCTV obtained here, which showed him entering the building on September 24.

Gold and diamond jewellery worth ₹20- ₹25 crore was stolen from the shop and police recovered 18.5kg of jewellery and ₹12.5 lakh cash from Srivas.