India: Thief behind Rs250m jewellery burglary nabbed with help of footage from over 1,000 CCTV cameras

One of the biggest thefts of its kind in Delhi, in which jewellery to the tune of Rs250 million was burgled from a shop, was solved within four days due to use of CCTV cameras and action by teams of Delhi Police and Chhattisgarh Police.

The incident took place earlier this week in the Jangpura area of Southeast Delhi and police made use of footage from over 1,000 CCTV cameras and internet to zero in on the accused.

Sources said soon after the incident, Delhi Police started looking for "professional thieves" who have a history of such big thefts.

They said Durg Police in Chhattisgarh contacted Delhi Police and told them about the arrest of a man who revealed that his accomplice had gone to Delhi “to commit a big theft”. Police officials said that it was the “biggest such theft” in nearly a decade in the capital.

The suspect was identified as Lokesh Srivas and Durg Police also shared his mobile number.

Technical intelligence showed that he had been to Delhi. The first location was Kashmiri Gate and the police followed the leads using CCTV footage to connect the dots.

Footage showed that the suspect entered the locality where the burglary happened on September 24 evening and came out the next day.

Police were able to identify the bus which the accused used to leave Delhi from Kashmiri Gate. CCTV footage also showed him buying a ticket from the Kashmiri Gate bus stand.

A Delhi Police team left for Chhattisgarh on September 28 evening.

DCP South-East Delhi Rajesh Deo said the case is an example of intra-police coordination and cooperation.

“We received information yesterday from a police officer of the Crime Branch of Durg police that during interrogation one of the accused, who was finally caught, had told his partner that he was going to Delhi to do a big job. The accused's name was told to be Lokesh Shrivas and when we saw his photograph it matched with our suspect,” he said.

Deo said technical surveillance established that Lokesh Shrivas' location on September 24 was suspicious.

The accused slept in a jewellery shop on Sunday night because it was not to open the next day. He left the shop on Monday evening and reached the Kashmiri gate bus terminal at 8.40pm after going to some other places.