OTT account activity helps man in Canada notice theft of household items

Police said that the suspects had sold some of the items that the complainant had entrusted in their care

Activity on his streaming service account on a television that was supposed to be shifted to a storage unit from his Gurugram residence helped a Canada-based man flag a theft of household items worth crores of rupees, police officers aware of the development said on Thursday.

Police said that the suspects shifted several of the man’s household items to their own apartment in Sector 77 and began using them. (Representational image)

Police said that the victim, Dinesh Manchanda, had noticed that someone was using the television to watch movies, which was one of the household items he had entrusted with family friends after shifting to Canada in December last year.

The three suspects involved in the theft, a father-son duo and an acquaintance of theirs, had known Manchanda for years. Manchanda had lived in the house — a bungalow built on 4,500 square foot land in South City 1 in Sector 40 — before he had shifted to Canada with his family, police said.

Police said that the suspects had assured the victim, who used to own a restaurant in Gurugram, that they would sell the house and shift the valuable household items to a storage unit at Hero Honda Chowk. However, they shifted several of these items to their apartment in Sector 77 and began using them, police said.

When Kumar inspected the storage unit, he found that it was filled with old and damaged items that belonged to the suspects.

Manchanda returned to Gurugram on February 19 and found out that the suspects had stolen items worth about ₹60 lakh from his residence for personal use while some other items, worth about ₹20-25 lakh, were sold to a scrap dealer on MG Road.

Investigators said that after threatening legal action, the suspects handed Manchanda his house keys back, returned several items and gave three cheques to compensate for the sold items. However, the cheques had incorrect signatures on them due to which they were returned by the bank.

Manchanda approached police twice in February and April but to no avail. On May 5, he moved a local court on whose order an FIR was registered against the three suspects — who police are yet to identify — under Section 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code at Sector 40 police station on Wednesday.

Sub-inspector Vinod Kumar, additional station house officer of Sector-40 police station, said, “Necessary action will be taken against suspects soon.”