Cops pose as labourers to recover fellow’s stolen car

The policemen kept an eagle eye on the stolen car, which did not even have a number plate, by splitting up in two groups of four each.

Eight policemen, disguised as farmers and labourers, confined themselves to a rented room in west Delhi’s Jai Vihar, near Rahnola, for a week to nab the men who had stolen a traffic police constable’s Wagon R car, which also had his uniform, in February and parked it in the neighbourhood.

Cops pose as labourers to recover fellow’s stolen car (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

“Since we knew the robbers would come to pick up the car, we chose to stay there till we nabbed them. We never disclosed our identity to anybody in the neighbourhood and pretended to be outsiders who had come to work as labourers and hired hands in agricultural fields,” a police officer associated with the case said.

The policemen kept an eagle eye on the stolen car, which did not even have a number plate, by splitting up in two groups of four each.

However, keeping round-the-clock vigil from a 12x10-feet room, which did not even have a fan, drinking water or utensils, soon became a test of their grit.

The officer said that though his colleagues remained enthusiastic for three-four days, they started losing hope when absolutely no one turned up to take the car. But, just as they were about to call off the operation on the seventh day, the team got lucky. They saw a man skulk around the car, before finally opening it with a key.

“We immediately surrounded the vehicle and told the suspect
to surrender. He tried to start the ignition to flee but we opened the door on the driver’s side and overpowered him. He identified himself as Sandeep Singh, 21, and confessed to stealing the car with two of his associates,” the officer said.

Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse said Singh’s interrogation led to the arrest of his accomplices—Sagar alias Lucky, 21, and Vipin Tiwari, 21—who confessed to committing another robbery within 30 minutes of stealing the cop’s car and wallet.

Police said the two robberies took place in sectors 9 and 19 of Dwarka.

The trio told police that they were riding a bike when they robbed a pedestrian of his mobile phone around 9.30pm in Sector 19. The pedestrian called the police control room and informed them about the crime. While the local police were completing the legal formalities, the control room received another call around 10pm about a carjacking near a CNG station in Sector 9.

The car owner, who identified himself as a constable with the traffic department, said he had stopped his car to urinate when three bike-borne men robbed him of his car and wallet after intimidating him with a baton.

The traffic constable, who was in plain clothes at the time of the carjacking, said his uniform was in the car.

“Since his uniform could have been misused by the criminals, five police teams were formed to recover the uniform, and the car,” the police officer said, adding that they were yet to find the policeman’s uniform as it was not in the car.

“The suspects’ physical description given by the two complainants suggested that both the robberies were committed by the same bikers. The teams first located the car, through two stickers on the windscreen, and then arrested the robbers,” Alphonse said

The DCP added that the
stolen mobile phone and the motorcycle used by the robbers
to commit the two crimes were also recovered.