Two held for ₹10 lakh jewellery theft from house in Ghaziabad

The police said that the arrests were made based on a tip-off and after interrogating around 100 people

Two suspects were arrested by Ghaziabad police on Saturday for allegedly breaking into a house in Lohiya Nagar on May 25, and stealing jewellery worth ₹10 lakh. The suspects gained access by cutting the back door grills of the house, police said.

The two suspects in custody. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The police said that the arrests were made based on a tip-off and after interrogating around 100 people. The suspects have been identified as Rahul Tyagi and Pankaj Kumar, residents of Nandgram and Ambedkar Colony respectively.

The house owner has been identified as Sumit Varshney, who was present in the house along with his wife and mother-in-law during the incident. Vrashney and his family was fast asleep when the suspect entered the house, police said adding that the family realized of the theft after the suspects fled with the valuables.

In his complaint to the police, Varshney said that he suspected a daily labourer for the theft who had worked at his house on May 10 and had been making infrequent phone calls until the day of the incident.

“We questioned the labourer, but we couldn’t establish his involvement in the incident. Our teams analyzed CCTV footage and sought assistance from local informers. During the investigation, we interrogated around 100 suspects, and one of them provided leads about the two men. The informer mentioned that the two men had been living a lavish lifestyle lately and appeared to have a significant amount of money,” said Ravi Kumar Singh, assistant commissioner of police (City 2).

The 100 individuals police interrogated had previous theft cases against them, the ACP added.

“When we called in the two suspects for questioning, they confessed to the crime. We have also recovered approximately 80% of the stolen valuables from Varshney’s house. The CCTV footage revealed that the suspects had surveyed the house two days prior to the incident,” the ACP said.

The two suspects have been charged with theft and causing damage under the Indian Penal Code at Sihani Gate police station, police said.