New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS): Four Delhi youths, inspired by movies, started a cell phone snatching racket, but have been identified and apprehended, police said on Monday.
DCP, West Delhi, Ghanshyam Bansal said that the accused were identified as Varun alias Vansh, Pankaj Aggarwal, Sameer, and Suleman.
He said on January 12, doctor Vijay Guvendram, who works in a government hospital, reported a case of snatching at Tilak Nagar Police Station.
According to Guvendram, he had gone to the Pacific Mall, along with his wife, and when they were leaving at 9.30 pm, two persons on a motorbike snatched his iPhone and fled. However, he managed to note down the vehicle’s number and shared it with the police.
The police team scanned the CCTV of nearby areas, and sought to trace the bike from its number.
The bike owner was traced and told the police that he had sold it in 2019 to Hitesh, who said he had sold it. Aggarwal, when questioned, said that he had lent it to Varun for some personal work.
“Efforts were made to trace Vansh but he was untraceable. To trace his whereabouts, several CCTVs’ footage was checked, assistance of sources/informers were taken and after very hard work, Varun was traced toJhandewalan. He was interrogated at length and during interrogation , he broke down and disclosed that he worked at the behest of Aggarwal, who directed him to snatch mobiles. He further disclosed that they were inspired by a movie and were using a sports bike for their crimes,” said the official.
Aggarwal revealed that he purchased the snatched mobile phone from Varun and further disposed it off to Suleman. Accordingly, efforts were made to trace Suleman, who was also untraceable, but finally apprehended, with the help of local informers, near the Lady Hardinge hospital and identified by Aggarwal. He was interrogated at length and revealed that he sold the stolen mobiles at low prices.
A total of 18 mobile phones were recovered on his information.
“Later on checking all the mobile phones were found stolen from the different areas of Delhi. During further investigation, his accomplice namely Sameer was also arrested,” the police said.