A 30-year-old man, who was allegedly robbing a flat on the 9th floor of an apartment in Indirapuram, fell to his death after he was spotted by the security guards early Wednesday morning. The police said the man was fleeing with jewellery from the flat when he was spotted by security guards, but he slipped from the 9th floor while trying to escape using a gas pipeline.

The man was identified as Dharmendra Kumar, a resident of east Delhi who had previously been involved in cases of theft and been jailed in Gujarat once, for the same.

According to the police, the incident came to light around 4am in Indirapuram’s Amba G Residency when the unidentified man was suspected to be inside a 9th floor flat in Block A, which belongs to a couple who work night shifts at their offices in Noida. The police said the accused was armed with a toy gun, a pack of chilli powder, a wire cutter, a screwdriver, a torch, and a cellphone, and was wearing a monkey-cap.

“As the accused found no place to run, he decided to climb down the gas pipeline,” Ravi Kumar, assistant superintendent of police (Indirapuram), said.

The security guards were alerted to the thief by residents of another flat on the 9th floor.

“We have no idea how he reached the 9th floor. The security guards traced him, and threatened to shoot. We have very tight security and guards patrol every 15 minutes,” Ruchi Sapra, general secretary, apartment owners’ association of Amba G Residency, said.

“We suspect the man had come from an adjacent vacant plot of land that is unlit. He probably climbed on a mound of soil close to the boundary wall and jumped inside. We are sure he did not come in from the main entrance. There are no streetlights in adjacent areas, and anti-social elements roam around,” KK Singh, president of the AOA of Amba G Residency, said.

The high-rise has 200 flats with A and B blocks comprising nine floors each while the other C and D blocks have 10 floors each.

“There are 16 CCTV cameras in the apartment, but only 50% are operational, as the society is under renovation,” Singh added.

“There has been a similar theft at a flat in a nearby high-rise. Both high-rises have hired the same security agency, and their regular guards were allegedly on leave during both incidents. We will verify this during the investigations,” Kumar added.

The dead man’s family did not lodge a police complaint, but an FIR was filed on the basis of a complaint filed by Bhanu Pratap Singh, a security guard.

The family refused to let themselves be named, after the incident. They said the door of their flat was not tampered with and suspected that the thief probably came through the balcony from the roof, and attempted an exit in a similar manner.

The police said they lodged an FIR under the Indian Penal Code’s sections 457 (house trespass) and theft (380) at Indirapuram police station. The police also recovered Rs 9,900 cash and some jewellery from the deceased man.

First Published: Jan 10, 2019 09:14 IST