Tanseem Haider | Edited by Arindam Mukherjee
New Delhi, November 29, 2017 | UPDATED 20:59 IST
Delhi crime branch has busted an organised gang of maidservants who operated in the National Capital Region.
A team of crime branch has arrested seven members of an organised gang of thieves and burglars hailing from Bihar who had committed a series of burglaries posing as maidservants or domestic help in Delhi's National Captial Region.
The gang stole gold and diamond jewellery worth crores of rupees. Nine cases of burglary have been worked out so far after seven accused female members of the gang were nabbed.
The Crime Branch was tasked to find information and to apprehend the members of the organised gang of burglars who created a havoc in Delhi-NCR by committing a spate of burglaries and house-thefts in Delhi and NCR.
Recently, five of these cases were also transferred to the crime branch for thorough investigation. These cases were being investigated by the Special Team for Active Robbers and Snatchers (STARS) of the crime branch.
The team's efforts yielded result when on November 25, 2017, when a specific information was received. An accused involved in several of these burglaries was to arrive near Ghazipur Bus Depot in Delhi to plan further similar offences.
The team acted swiftly and a raid was conducted to nab the suspects. The team was successful in apprehending five female members of the gang who were found involved in nine cases of burglary and house-thefts in Delhi-NCR. Two other members were arrested earlier making the total number of arrests at 7.
MODUS OPERANDI
It emerged during investigation that the gang's modus operandi was similar. The accused females accessed homes of the victims in the guise of a maidservant or domestic help. They mostly worked in pairs and offered their services to the victims showing their expertise and professionalism. One of them distracted members of the victim family with her gimmicks and the other one, who was usually expert in breaking and opening of the locks of almirahs and drawers, burgled the house thereby looting jewellery and cash from the target house.
After committing the offence, the maidservants escaped from the scene of crime with stolen property neatly tucked under their shawls and sarees. The victims could not imagine the intentions of the accused. With the help of CCTV recordings available at the place of incidents and surrounding areas, it was found that there were common faces in most of these incidents. Also the turnout of the female accused was similar. Almost all of them wore shawls and sarees. After interrogation it was found that the accused belong to Bhagalpur, Bihar and adjoining areas.
The accused had also gained expertise, at par with professional jewellers, in identifying gold and diamonds. That's how they stole real jewellery articles of high value only, leaving behind the artificial jewellery.
The gang stayed in Delhi-NCR for short periods and left for Bihar after amassing huge quantity of gold and diamond jewellery. The gang disposed off the loot with the help of jewellers situated in Bihar only as they had feared that they might be exposed while dealing with Delhi based jewelers.