7-member bag-lifting gang busted

A seven-member gang led by a woman has been busted for involvement in 12 cases of bag-lifting from parked cars in Okhla Industrial Area and Amar Colony, police said on Wednesday.

All the accused Sharda, Kanna, Rahul, Sachin, Kamal, Baadal and Ashok Kumar are residents of Madangir in Ambedkar Nagar.

“We have recovered Rs 4.90 lakh, three laptops and an Apple iPad, among other items, from them,” said additional commissioner of police (south-east) Ajay Chaudhry.

“They were experts in bag-lifting and used various methods to commit crime. They would knock on the car’s door and divert the driver’s attention or puncture a tyre. They would also break the car’s glass to steal things within minutes,” Chaudhry added.

Police took action after a spate of bag-lifting incidents were reported from Okhla Industrial Area and Amar Colony police stations.

On Tuesday, Kalkaji Extension resident Kunal Bahl reported that while he was travelling in his Chevrolet Aveo car, two persons threw paint on the vehicle near Kalkaji Depot. When he got down to check, one of them took away a bag containing Rs 4.5 lakh from the car.

Head constable Jitender got a tip-off immediately that the bag-lifter may be caught in Madangir.

“A team swung into action and apprehended Kanna and Sachin, and recovered Rs 1 lakh from them,” Chaudhry added.

At their instance gang leader Sharda was arrested from her house and Rs 2 lakh was recovered from her.

Kamal, Baadal, and Rahul were also arrested and Rs 1.5 lakh were recovered from them.
The receiver of laptops, Ashok, was subsequently nabbed and three laptops were recovered from his shop in Nehru Place.