Garment store robbers involved in 16 cases of theft, car snatching

Five days after three men were arrested for allegedly stealing garments from a store at Model Town, Sector 11, a probe in the matter revealed that the suspects had at least 16 cases of theft registered against them in the city in the past year.

The suspects – Chanchal alias Amit, 27, Monu Kumar, 28, and Atul 28, were arrested from the Delhi border during night patrol. The suspects are from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, officers said.

Police claimed that with the arrest of the suspects, at least 16 other cases of theft of mobile phones, garments and vehicles, registered at different police stations across the city, have been solved. Three Honda City cars, two motorcycles, 11 mobile phones and some garments were recovered from the suspects.

Police suspect that the three are part of a larger gang based in Delhi, as all the stolen items had been disposed of there. “We had deployed teams at several places and had been on the lookout for the gang since 11 months. Finally, on April 17, we caught hold of three suspects during night patrolling,” ACP (crime) Shamsher Singh said.

Police claimed that during probe, it was found that the arrested suspects are the same ones spotted in the CCTV footage recovered from various crime spots. Footage from at least six CCTV cameras was analysed for the garment theft case.

Police said the suspects allegedly used to lift vehicles from unattended parking areas such as Sushant Lok, Sector 29, Palam Vihar, Sector 5, Badhshahpur, Udyog Vihar and old Gurugram.

Police said the suspects have allegedly confessed to lifting vehicles using a master key. “All three are allegedly history sheeters and used to sell the stolen items in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. They had allegedly stolen two Honda City cars from Delhi and one from Sector 10 in Gurugram. There are possibilities that they have allegedly lifted more than 20 vehicles from across the city as during interrogation, we found there were discrepancies in their statements,” Singh said.

According to the police, the three were arrested a day after they allegedly carried out the late night burglary late at a garment shop. They were taken on police remand for four days. On Monday, the suspects were sent to a 14-day judicial custody.

Chanchal, allegedly the mastermind of the gang, had even tried to escape from custody on Friday but was not successful.