Delhi Police nabs 'super thief' who inspired Bollywood movie
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Police has arrested Devender Singh alias Bunty, a notorious thief who was allegedly involved in around 500 cases of theft across the country and inspired a Bollywood flick, officials said on Friday.
Nicknamed "super thief", 53-year-old Singh was nabbed from Uttar Pradesh in connection with two recently executed thefts in the national capital, they said.
Singh started committing thefts since the age of 14 years. He was previously involved in more than 250 cases of theft in Delhi alone, they said.
Singh gained fame after he participated in the popular reality show 'Big Boss' in 2010 but was evicted after he misbehave with host Salman Khan. He also inspired Bollywood movie 'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!', police said.
The arrest was made after a case was registered based on the complaint of a GK-II resident regarding theft of three expensive mobile phones, purse, two laptops, branded shoes, wrist watch and Baleno car on the intervening night of April 12-13, police said.
On the same day, a second theft was reported by another resident of GK-II, they added.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Chandhan Choudhary said CCTV camera footage of the area and the place of incident revealed that a middle aged suspect wearing a cap was involved in both the incidents.
"The team started looked at the CCTV footage of the suspect and followed the route of the stolen car which revealed that it was going towards Noida via Alaknanda in CR Park," the official said.
The registration number of the car was also ascertained through the footage, police said.
"During the course of investigation, police teams of CR Park followed the footage and tracked the car till Kalindi Kunj. Meanwhile, the team checked the locations of stolen mobile phones and found one of them switched on following which its location was traced near Agra. The team instantly moved towards the location which was about 150 KM away from them," she said.
The fastag of the stolen mobile phone was kept on surveillance. Fastag deductions at different toll booths were monitored, police said.
The team spotted the stolen car on the highway near Etawah in UP. The team later managed to intercept the car at a toll booth in the UP's Kanpur Dehat but the accused tried to escape. However, the glass window of the car was broken and the accused was apprehended, she added.
Stolen items, including three mobile phones, two laptops, five LED TVs with set top boxes, iron, printer and other ID Cards and purse of the complainants were also recovered from the the car, police said.
The accused was arrested and the case property was seized, the DCP said.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
