Sector 45 burglary: Technical surveillance shows burglars on the move; three police teams formed

Three teams were formed to arrest four men involved in allegedly robbing a 42-year-old woman of jewellery and cash worth ₹2 crore on Friday in Sector 45, after tying

Three teams were formed to arrest four men involved in allegedly robbing a 42-year-old woman of jewellery and cash worth ₹2 crore on Friday in Sector 45, after tying up the woman and her grandson.

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According to the police, the victim, Sneh Gupta, and her six-year-old grandson were alone at home when the incident took place. Gupta said she and her grandson are still reeling under the trauma of the incident.

Aman Yadav, the assistant commissioner of police (Sadar), said that three days before the incident, the victim had hired a domestic help from a nearby slum area without any police verification of his antecedents. “After the woman’s family members left for work on Friday, the domestic help, along with his three friends, entered the house. They tied up the woman and her grandson with ropes and warned them against raising an alarm,” Yadav said.

The robbers broke open the safe of the cupboards and packed gold and diamond ornaments in four bags, including one that belonged to the victim herself. The police said that the suspects also took the digital video recorder from a CCTV camera installed outside the house.

According to the police, the incident took place around 12 noon at the house of Pradeep Gupta, who has a business of gold, silver and handicraft items on Asaf Ali Road in Delhi. Gupta had left for work around 11am.

Yadav said the family did not even ask for the domestic help for his cellphone number or his past credentials. “They were not even aware of his real name. The information that the family possess about the domestic help is that what was provided by the suspect,” he said.

The police have recovered CCTV footage, in which the four men can be seen walking towards the main road. Whether they took public transport or private vehicle remains unclear.

Yadav said they have roped in crime teams to investigate the case and raids are being conducted at several spots.

“The location of the cellphone, which the suspects took away from the woman, shows different places in the city. There is a possibility that the suspects were travelling in either a public bus or an auto-rickshaw, which were travelling around the city,” said Yadav.

The police said that after the victims’ previous domestic help had quit, the family had hired a man, who identified himself as Jagdish alias Raju from Kanpur and lived in a slum opposite their house.

Raju had moved in the slum 25 days ago and no one knew of any details of him. Even neighbours were clueless as they said they hardly interacted.

The police suspect that the men are history sheeters and had plans to rob the houses in the neighbourhood for which they have rented a slum.

Gupta’s mother, who lodged the complaint, said Raju came to work at around 8am and left at 12 noon, leaving the door ajar. “Within a few minutes, three men barged inside the house. They tied me and my grandson’s hands and legs with a cloth and broke open the locks of cupboards. They stuffed the jewellery and cash in two black bags and left after threatening me,” she said.

The police said the suspects stole ₹5 lakh cash and jewellery worth ₹1.95 crore. After the four escaped, the woman managed to untie her hands, borrow a passerby’s phone to report the incident.

A case under Section 392 (robbery) has been registered at Sector 40 police station on Friday.