With the arrest of eight persons, Southeast district police have busted a gang of pickpockets that targeted people travelling in DTC buses or metro trains. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Southeast district Chinmoy Biswal said that the gang, run by one Dalip Ganja used a unique modus operandi to commit pick pocketing.
“In case if the gang went for pick pocketing in a bus, they deployed two bike-borne men at both sides of the bus. While the front biker would alert the gang member inside the bus about the police picket, the second biker, moving behind the bus would take the member out and flee. The gang was so professional that they used specific words like “machine” and thek-baaz. While machine skillfully pick pocketed valuables from the target after thek-baaz had selected the target,” added Biswal.
Police said that due to rising incidents of mobile theft and pick pocketing in the buses, they came up with a plan to increase patrolling and deployed barricades on roads.
“The police had intensified picketing near the bus stands. A team under ACP Sarita Vihar received a tip-off on March 18 that members of the Dalip Ganja gang would come looking for targets on the Mathura Road near Sarita Vihar. Following this tip-off, police laid a trap and apprehended the gang leader Dalip, Shahid. Vikash Sharma and Jitender Yadav,” said the DCP.
On verification, police found eight stolen phones from their possession. At their instance, Firoz, Noor Hasan, Vikki Singh and Bhim Singh and 19 stolen mobile phones and two motorcycles were recovered from them.
“During sustained interrogation, the accused revealed that Dalip is the kingpin of this gang and has a previous involvement in several cases of robbery, theft. Dalip, along with Shahid, roped in other local boys from their area and started a gang which mainly indulged in pick pocketing and stealing mobile phones from people travelling by buses. The gang mainly targeted buses plying between Badarpur to Anand Vihar and Kalkaji to Badarpur. All the arrested criminals have been found involved in several criminal cases,” said Biswal.
Explaining about the terms used by the gang members, the police officer said that they used to call their gang as company and Dalip used to operate as the “machine”. “Machine” is referred to that member of the gang who very skillfully pick-pockets the mobile/wallet of their target. The other operatives in the bus used to work as thek baaz and they used to instantly pick up their target in the bus and used to corner him on the pretext of rush in the bus. The target used to believe that these members of the gang are fellow passengers. It was through their special skill that these thek baaz used to push the target to divert his or her attention and within a blink of an eye, the machine used to steal the mobile or the wallet.
Police said that with the arrest of these eight men, they have solved 16 cases of pickpocketing. All the accused are school dropouts and were unemployed. To earn quick money, they committed the crime.