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The Nand Nagri burglar who turned out to be a ‘crorepati’
New Delhi
New Delhi
Residents of E Block in Northeast Delhi’s Nand Nagri always took Kayyum to be a quaint man. The 36-year-old was locally known as a petty thief, who would otherwise rent out an auto-rickshaw to eke out a living.
But when police arrested him for a sixth time on Thursday and dug a little deeper, his secret came tumbling out of the almirah.
Kayyum turned out to be a millionaire — wealth that he had allegedly accumulated by burgling houses. His net worth, according to the police, was found to be at least Rs 2.25 crore, at last count on Saturday. “We searched his safe to recover Rs 27 lakh in cash and 2.25 kilos of gold jewellery, among other stolen valuables. Since last year, he has also purchased two flats worth Rs 65 lakh and Rs 47 lakh, paying with the money he made through burgling houses in east Delhi neighbourhoods such as Laxmi Nagar, Patparganj, Vivek Vihar, Shakarpur and Mandawali,” said Jasmeet Singh, deputy commissioner of police (east).
ARMED ONLY WITH MASTER KEYS
The officer said that Kayyum operated without any weapons, simply relying on master keys to break into houses whose occupants were away. Fifty-three master keys have been recovered from him. “Kayyum has a knack for guessing spots in houses, where people hide their cash and jewellery if they don’t keep them in their safes,” said Singh.
He would be aided by his older brother, 40-year-old Ayyub, who would pick and drop him at the scene of crime, keep a watch during the burglaries and get him out on bail, whenever Kayyum was arrested, said the DCP. Ayyub too has been arrested.
POSED AS POOR
This is not the first time Kayyum has been arrested. Since 2006, he has been jailed five times, but investigators never dug deep enough as the duo always pretended to be not finacially well off after being nabbed, said the DCP.
For years, Kayyum’s family has been living in a building constructed over a 250 square feet plot. “The house belongs to Kayyum’s mother. She had purchased it decades ago by money she accumulated by making beedis, by selling her jhuggi and from whatever little inheritance she had got from her mother,” said Ayyub’s wife, Shaista.
Shaista insisted that her own husband — who is known to run a biryani stall in Seelampur — was innocent, but wouldn’t vouch for Kayyum. “I don’t know what Kayyum does for a living. I don’t talk to him or his wife ever since we quarrelled over some domestic issues long ago,” said Shaista, as her children played with some Children’s Bank of India currency notes on the street outside their Nand Nagri home.
But the police said thay they had started to piece together evidence against Kayyum that showed his involvement in multiple burglaries.
Kayyum’s name first figured in the probe when a spate of burglaries were reported at multiple police stations in East Delhi and Shahdara districts in the recent past. “A stout, average-height, bearded man was spotted in CCTV footages of many burglaries that we were probing,” said the DCP, adding that there were about a dozen such footages that the investigators scanned.
Kayyum and Ayyub were arrested on Thursday, while they were headed to court for a hearing.
THE LOADED ALMIRAH
It only after their Thursday arrest, that the police realised that Kayyum and his wife did not live at their Nand Nagri home. They then interrogated him about his place of residence. It is then that Kayyum told the police about the two recently purchased flats, one in Yamuna Vihar and another in Kabir Nagar. “From a large LED TV of a renowned brand to a double door refrigerator, the two flats are furnished with all necessary gadgets and appliances. All of that was purchased using money he made from burglaries,” said the DCP.
When the police searched the flats for stolen items, they chanced upon an almirah. “The almirah had Rs 27 lakh in cash, seven mobile phones, 11 wrist watches and over 320 gold ornaments, weighing a total of 2.25 kilos,” said the DCP, adding that Kayyum had ended up keeping so much stolen jewellery at home because he hadn’t disposed off his stolen booty in the recent months.
The DCP said that Kayyum had purchased both the flats in his mother’s name. “We will request the court to attach the two properties as they were purchased using money from burglaries,” said the DCP.
Unlike most solved cases of burglaries where the police either fail to recover stolen items, or aren’t able to link them to the suspects – allowing the suspects to get bail easily -- this time the police are optimistic that Kayyum will remain in jail for long.
