LNJP employee held for theft

The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police has arrested an LNJP Hospital staffer for allegedly stealing surgical instruments from the hospital.

On Tuesday, a police team led by Inspector Ashok Sharma, under the supervision of ACP (Inter-state Cell) Rajinder Bakshi arrested Deep Narayan (40), a resident of Sagarpur in Dabri, southwest Delhi and recovered surgical instruments worth Rs. 20 lakh from his possession.

The thefts

Narayan, an OT technician at LNJP, had in the past five years systematically targeted almost every government hospital in the capital -- robbing them of Rs 2 crore worth of instruments. In December last year, police had arrested six of his accomplices for allegedly being involved in the thefts.

The Inter State Cell then claimed to have solved more than a dozen cases of burglary and theft from eight city hospitals. Hindustan Times was the first to report about this spate of burglaries at government hospitals.

How he operated

The police said that Narayan would receive surgical instruments from his accomplices, then sell them in the open market and share the booty with his accomplices. “They used to commit theft generally on weekends or the day preceding a holiday, between 9:00 pm and 1:00 am. Narayan would then store the equipment at his house and later sell it,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.

How he was nabbed

Police say Narayan was looking for buyers for a large consignment of instruments. “When we got inputs that he was trying to sell the instruments, we arrested him,” added the officer.