Family returns from funeral in Delhi to find house burgled

Unidentified thieves broke into a house in Palam Vihar and decamped with cash and jewellery while its occupants were away in Delhi, the police said on Friday.

The house owner’s sister-in-law died on Thursday morning at Safdarjung Hospital and when he returned to his house after three days on Thursday, he noticed that the door locks had been broken and the cupboards ransacked.

The police said that according to the complainant, ₹35,000 in cash, six pairs of earrings, a gold necklace, two gold chains, eight rings (six gold, two diamond), two nose pins and 1.5 kg of silver was stolen from the house.

“We had locked the house and gone to the hospital in Delhi three days ago. When I returned on Thursday around 11 am, I noticed that the house had been broken into and reported the incident to the police,” the complainant said in the FIR.

A police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said, “It is not certain on which day the thieves broke into the house. No arrests have been made.”

A case was registered against the unidentified accused persons under sections 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc.) and 454 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking) of the Indian Penal Code at the Palam Vihar police station on Thursday, the police said.

According to data released by the city police, though the cases of burglary in the city have marginally declined to 577 in 2018 as compared to 602 the previous year, the police said such incidents had increased in Palam Vihar and Sushant Lok.

On December 27, the crime branch of the city police had arrested two Delhi-based thieves for their involvement in at least seven thefts in the city. The police said the accused men targeted unoccupied houses and paying guest lodges in Sushant Lok, Palam Vihar and DLF phases 1, 2 ,3.

The police had recovered a motorcycle, a mobile phone and ₹10,000 in cash from them.

First Published: Jan 05, 2019 14:32 IST