New Delhi: In a significant breakthrough, the Delhi Police announced on Friday that they have busted a gang of women thieves who were targeting passengers on Delhi Metro trains. Five women have been arrested in connection with the case.
The police recovered stolen cash amounting to Rs. 44,900 and a PAN card belonging to a victim who was robbed by the gang. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Metro), K P S Malhotra, revealed that a woman had reported on April 9 that unknown persons stole her purse containing Rs. 50,000 in cash and her PAN card while she was travelling on the Blue Line between Rajiv Chowk Metro Station and Rajender Place Metro station. Following the report, an FIR was lodged and a team led by Inspector Pawan Tomar was formed to solve the case.
The team scanned the CCTV footage of Rajiv Chowk Metro station and tracked the complainant’s movements until she boarded the Metro train on the blue line towards Rajender Place. The CCTV footage from the Metro carriage revealed that five women surrounded the complainant in the crowd. Interestingly, two of them were carrying infants in their laps and were attempting to divert the complainant’s attention. Meanwhile, the other woman stealthily picked up a small purse from her handbag. The group then vanished from the compartment at the very next Metro station, R K Ashram Marg.
The police team followed their movements at R K Ashram Marg, where they were seen exiting the station and boarding an auto-rickshaw. The team searched the auto-rickshaw and discovered that all the accused had disembarked near the Fareedpuri Transit Camp Jhuggies, Anand Parbat. Later, based on secret information, they were apprehended from Connaught Place as they were moving towards Rajiv Chowk Metro station.
During the investigation, the arrested women disclosed that they operated as a group with a common intention to commit theft at crowded Metro stations. Two of them would even carry infants in their laps to divert attention or to pick quarrels with fellow passengers under the pretext of raising false allegations of elbowing their infants in the crowd. Due to the infants in their laps, they would also gain sympathy in case they were caught stealing by fellow passengers. Each of the accused persons had a specified role in the group, and all of them operated in unison.
The accused mainly targeted unsuspecting women travellers. All the arrested accused persons were already found involved in several cases of theft inside Metro trains.