Two persons were caught red-handed while stealing street lights installed outside the houses of Members of Parliament (MPs) on Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Road in highly-secured lutyens' Zone. The accused were spotted by a passerby who raised an alarm. The alert staff of Parliament Street Police Station arrested the thieves. The accused, identified as Kamal Singh and Mohammad Salim, are repeat offenders and have been involved in similar activities. Police said the accused used to target MPs' residences and committed theft at their houses in night.
Both, in early 20's, are vagabond and use to have 'langar' at Gurdwara daily. A senior officer told The Pioneer that they were trying to establish their involvements in previous theft cases in MP flats. A PCR call was made around 2.30 am when some persons were trying to open some halogen lights installed outside the bungalow no. 20 at Gurudwara Rakabganj Road in Parliament Street area. A patrolling staff was immediately alerted and a team from North Avenue Police post caught both the persons.
From their possession, four halogen lights were recovered. On interrogation, they confessed to have stolen two lights from the bungalow number 20 while other two from the Bungalow number 30. "These lights are installed just four-five feet from the ground for lighting as well decorating purposes and could be approached easily," said a police officer.
They told police that they had stolen several lights from outside several houses in the area. They used so sell the stolen lights at Rs 4,000 to 5,000, while the actual cost of such lights are around Rs 10,000. Kamal Singh is a native of Itawa, Uttar Pradesh and Mohammad Salim is resident of Motihari, Bihar. Police said that MPs had, earlier, complained of such thefts in the area. They were trying to establish their involvement in other cases. Further investigations are on.