A police team busted a theft racket operating inside Indira Gandhi International Airport terminals, arrested eight people and seized jewellery worth over Rs 10 lakh from their possession, officials said. The eight accused were working as loaders with various airlines and ground handling agencies operating at IGI Airport, New Delhi, officials said. “Gold and silver jewellery of approximately Rs. 10 lakhs, 6 branded watches, Apple iPhone, Cash Rs. 1,15,000 and other articles have been seized from their possession,” officials said.
“With their arrest, 4 Cases of baggage theft registered at IGIA unit have also been solved,” the police added.
“On January 11, the team of Police station IGI Airport with the help of the vigilance department of the Airlines apprehended one loader namely Deepak Pal S/o Satya Prakash who attempted to pilfer from the registered check-in baggage of a passenger who was to board the flight,” police added.
Subsequently, a case under sections 379/511 of IPC was registered and an investigation was taken up, officials said.
“The accused Deepak was brought to the Police Station, interrogated, and subsequently arrested in the present case. He disclosed that he was working as a loader in a ground handling assistance providing company since 2018” the police said.
“As the salary of Rs 18000 was not enough for him he started committing petty thefts from the baggage of the passengers whenever he got an opportunity. Slowly and gradually he came in contact with 07 other loaders and ground handling staff of other airlines and agencies. As they all were living in close vicinity and were working in almost the same timing shifts, they all in active connivance and with ulterior motives formulated a gang and started committing baggage theft at a large scale,” accused Deepak told police.
“Looking at the gravity of the matter, a dedicated team of police officials comprising Inspector Sumit Kumar, Insp. Satish Yadav, SI Mukesh Kumar, SI Sandeep, SI Prashant, SI Sanjeev Chaudhary, HC Vishwajeet, HC Birju, and W/Ct. Mohini under the leadership of SHO, IGIA Yashpal Singh and overall supervision of ACP, IGI Virender Mor was constituted,” police added.
“The team worked meticulously and through the assistance of technical surveillance, the team located the whereabouts of all the suspicious loaders. Simultaneous raids were conducted at the whereabouts of all the loaders and all the seven other loaders were arrested,” Police said. Police have identified the accused as Gautam Kumar S/o Ram Bir Singh, Moshin Khan S/o Ibrahim Khan, Rahul Yadav S/o Ashok, Yashwinder S/o Sube Singh, Pappi Kumar S/o Kalu Ram Neeraj Kumar S/o Omprakash, Kamal Kumar S/o Suresh Kumar.
“A huge quantity of stolen articles was recovered
from their possession,” the Police said. “All the accused persons are working as loaders with various airlines and ground handling agencies operating at IGI Airport, New Delhi. They all were operating as a gang and used to work in active connivance with each other. They use to commit theft from the baggage of the passengers and use to hide the stolen articles inside the lockers and other places within the airport,” the police said. “Later whenever they got an opportunity they used to hide the stolen articles inside their undergarments and used to come out of the airport. They were working in a professional manner and used to collect the stolen articles in one place before disposing of them. Efforts are being made to trace the other beneficiaries and purchasers of the stolen goods,” police added.