Man arrested for using baby for stealing from malls

A 35-year-old guest house owner, who allegedly used to steal costly articles from malls and used his three-year-old baby to conceal theft, was arrested here, police said on Thursday.

Sandeep Sharma, who runs a guesthouse in Gurgaon, was apprehended yesterday after investigations into a complaint filed by the owner of a music showroom in Saket, Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), said.

The owner had claimed that a person came to their showroom with a child in pram and picked up a master head phone worth around Rs 30,000 and kept the same in the pram, made the child sit on it and went out without paying.

"Police checked the CCTV and found that he left in a car with the number HR 26 BM 6549. He was traced and arrested," the DCP said. Sharma, hailing from Haryana Rewari, completed his graduation from a prestigious college in Delhi and did Hotel Management from Mumbai. He runs a Guest House in Gurgaon.

He told police that he used to visit malls with his three-year-old baby in a costly pram.

"He would steal the expensive items and after removing its sensor, he would keep the same in the secret chamber of the pram and would make the baby sit on it. Then he would leave the shop confidently without any check at the gate by the guard," the DCP said.

He had knowledge of the bar tag or censor tag about which common people don't know much. If articles with tag were taken out of the showroom, the censors at the gate will identify it and security alarm will ring.

"Hence, he used to remove the bar tag of the articles before leaving the showroom. The driver of the accused, who was also interrogated, revealed that Sandeep used to visit malls in Delhi and NCR very frequently and leave from there with valuable articles in every visit," the DCP said.