New Delhi: Five men were arrested for allegedly impersonating domestic helps and carrying out thefts in their employer’s house in east Delhi’s Shakarpur area, police said today.
The accused, identified as Sushant Malik alias Mama (in his 30s), Rabi Narayan Rana (44), Subrata Malik alias Bapi (19), Sanjay Das (32) and Arun Malik (32), were arrested from Balasore in Odisha, they added.
On the intervening night of December 4 and 5, the police were informed about a theft of Rs 30 lakh from a house located in Priyadarshini Vihar in east Delhi’s Shakarpur area.
The house owner, Tapan Mehndiratta, along with his family, had gone to his relative’s house in Karol Bagh, leaving the house in their servant Subrata Malik’s care.
When they returned late at night on December 4, Mehndiratta found that the locked room, in which he had kept the money received recently from the sale of some property, was broken into and the servant was missing, the police said.
CCTV footage revealed that the servant had left the house around an hour after the family left. His phone was also switched off, they added.
The servant’s phone was retrieved from an auto driver near Preet Vihar who said that he had found it lying on the road, they said.
The police interrogated the friends and relatives of the absconding suspect and it was found that some other people were also involved, the police said.
It was found that they were hiding in their native village in Odisha. A police team was sent there and found the accused hiding in villages around Balasore district in Odisha.
It was found that one Rabi Narayan, from Cuttack, was assisting them in disposing of the money and purchasing gold jewellery and diamonds.
With the local police’s assistance, under the supervision of the superintendent of police, Balasore, Niti Shekhar and Deputy Commissioner of Police(Cuttack) Akhileshwar Singh, the five accused were nabbed between December 15-17, the police said.
The police seized Rs 17 lakh, apart from gold and diamond jewellery, from the accused, they said.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that they were a part of a professional gang of house thieves, the police said.
Two members of the gang would go to cities across Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and also come to Delhi and get employed as servants through placement agencies in affluent families, they said.
They would win people’s trust over a period of two-three months and look for an opportunity to steal from their house, they said.
When such an opportunity arose, they would contact their associates in Odisha who would come to the city along with a number of mobile phones and different SIM cards, the police said.
Once back in their villages, they would contact their associate in-charge of disposing of the cash for gold and diamonds, the police said.
PTI