The sluggish investigation into a burglary case by Delhi Police has virtually turned a 32-year-old businessman of west Delhi into an investigator himself. Fed up with astounding and reluctant approach of the cops, Suresh Mittal, the owner of a departmental store in Paschim Vihar started gathering evidence himself and provided them to police.
On the intervening night of December 20-21, four burglars broke into his store and decamped with Rs 14 lakh. He reported the matter to the police next day. Though an FIR was lodged, police could not make any breakthrough. Every time he used to visit the Mianwali Nagar police station, he was given assurance that the investigation is on it will take some more time.
Since then he has been visiting police stations and spent more than three hours motivating cops to expedite the investigation. Mittal also made representation before senior police officials but all his efforts seem to have gone waste. Mittal had a strong gut feeling that an organised gang has been active in the area which had targeted several other shops in the vicinity in the past six months. He himself collected the details of these burglaries in Guru Harkishan Nagar Market area of Paschim Vihar, allegedly committed by one gang, which he had submitted to the police. Mittal has also been urging people whose shops were targeted in the last six months to put pressure on the police.
“The police did not start investigation even after I had given CCTV footages of 52 cameras installed in my store. When I kept enquiring about the development in the case, they said that they had been facing difficulties as the footages were not clear. With the help of technical support, I managed to get clear images and handed over the footages to them. Still no progress had taken place. I am doing which the police department is supposed to do,” Mittal said adding that in a video, the face of a suspect is quite clear but the police is not able to trace him.
“Six burglary cases with the same modus-operandi were reported in the same locality in last six months, while several car theft cases were also reported, but Delhi police have failed to crack a single case. I told the police about possible involvement of a security guard of the area which had been removed by the welfare association three days before the burglary took place in my store. But police did not bother to look for the security guard as he could be a great help in tracing the miscreants involved in the case,” he said.
“After registering the case, investigators were giving only assurances to us but they are not investigating the case properly. I have started visiting every day to the police station and I spent around three hours with them. I have provided them the CCTV footage and even the clear photo of one of the burglars but still they are looking for some more clues,” he said.
Stating that the investigation into the matter is being conducted, a senior police official said that several local criminals were picked up and questioned but the police are yet to made a break through. “A team of the police official have already been sent to Uttar Pradesh after identifying possible involvement of a gang active in the area,” he said.