Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Sep 17: A 22-year-old domestic worker has been arrested for allegedly burgling a residence in north Delhi and stealing jewellery and cash worth several crores, with police saying he planned to use the proceeds to move to Nepal and open a restaurant-cafe.
His father-in-law and a 17-year-old boy were also apprehended in connection with the case, police said.
The accused have been identified as Anil Kamat, a native of Supaul in Bihar, his father-in-law Dev Chandra Sah, 49, who works as a vegetable vendor, and the juvenile, a resident of Giridih in Jharkhand who also worked as a domestic servant.
Police said they recovered 117 gold and diamond jewellery items valued at around Rs 3 crore, Rs 4.34 lakh in cash and bags allegedly used to carry the stolen valuables.
The burglary was reported on September 6 from the first floor of a house on Mall Road in the Timarpur area. Complainant Anshul Gupta told police that his elder brother Anuj Gupta and his family had travelled abroad on September 2. The family later learnt that the house had been burgled.
Police said two domestic workers hired by the family the previous month were missing following the incident and their mobile phones had been switched off. A case was subsequently registered at Timarpur police station.
During the investigation, police examined footage from more than 300 CCTV cameras across Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand. The suspects were tracked from Mall Road to the ISBT, New Delhi Railway Station and subsequently towards Mukarba Chowk.
Technical surveillance and cyber intelligence helped police establish the suspects’ links to Bihar and Jharkhand. A police team was sent to Darbhanga, where CCTV footage showed Kamat and the juvenile at a railway station on September 8.
The juvenile was subsequently traced to the home of relatives in Giridih and apprehended on September 10. Kamat was traced to the area near Simrahi in Supaul district, where his in-laws lived.
When police raided the premises, Kamat was not present, but Sah was found there and questioned. Police said a red bag matching one seen in CCTV footage was found hidden under a bed, while another bag containing cash was recovered from sacks of hay.
During questioning, the accused allegedly told police that the stolen jewellery had been buried beneath the floor of another room. Officials said police recovered the jewellery bag from a depth of around five feet after nearly an hour of digging.
Sah was subsequently arrested for allegedly possessing stolen property and was sent to judicial custody. Kamat was detained by local police in the Pratapganj area and formally arrested on September 16.
According to police, Kamat and his associates had allegedly planned to travel to Nepal, open a restaurant or cafe and use the proceeds of the burglary to establish a lavish lifestyle.
Police also said Kamat had previously been involved in a burglary case involving around Rs 1.25 crore in Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh area.
The case was cracked through CCTV analysis, technical surveillance, cyber intelligence and ground-level investigation conducted across Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand, police said.