A new style of theft: A Man Boarded 200 flights, In Over 100 Days To Robber Valuables From  Passengers At Airports

GG News Bureau 

New Delhi, 14th May. In order to carry out thefts at airports and take items from multiple passengers in 2023, he boarded 200 planes last year and traveled thousands of kilometers throughout the nation for more than 100 days.
When a woman alleged last month that jewellery valued at ₹7 lakh had been taken from her handbag while traveling from Hyderabad to Delhi, the Delhi Police discovered the new kind of theft. A US citizen filed a second complaint with the police, claiming that his cabin bag had goods worth ₹20 lakh stolen from it.  After looking through hours of airport video, the police detained Rajesh Kapoor.

The Operandi Modus Operandi

After police in Paharganj, Delhi, analyzed CCTV material from the airports in Hyderabad, Amritsar, and Delhi, Rajesh Kapoor was taken into custody. The suspect informed the police how he carried out the crime for a year in airports, one of the nation’s most heavily guarded locations, and how he was able to get away with it.
Usha Rangrani, Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police, stated that the individual specifically targeted travelers who had connecting flights.  For instance, the woman who traveled to Delhi in April from Hyderabad had to get off at Delhi’s IGI Airport and take a connecting Air India flight to the United States.

In a similar vein, Varjinderjit Singh, a resident of the United States, had a connecting flight from Delhi and was traveling from Amritsar to Frankfurt, Germany.

The senior police officer claimed that he used to watch how women and older travelers behaved at the airport before selecting them as his targets. To find out more about the valuables inside the bag, he would either follow them or surreptitiously check the information on the baggage declaration sheet. According to the authorities, the individual interacted with people primarily at the boarding gate; before that, he would watch how his targets behaved.

According to the authorities, the accused had a habit of asking the airline to move his seat so he could be closer to the passenger. While it happened by coincidence occasionally, he usually provided an explanation for the change in seat.

The police further stated that when other passengers were boarding the plane, he would frequently sit next to the person he would steal from, pretend to move the luggage in the overhead compartment, and take jewelry and other valuables. The accused received the airline’s phone number; but, in order to deceive them, he supplied a bogus number at the time of booking, and the phone number was registered in the name of someone else to ensure he left no trace.

“A Owner of a Guest House”

“Ricky Deluxe,” a guest house in Delhi Paharganj near the New Delhi Railway Station, is owned by Rajesh. The other floors of the guest home belonged to the clients; the man lived on the third floor. According to the authorities, he operated a mobile repair shop in Delhi in addition to his money exchange company. He operated out of numerous airports, including Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Amritsar, and took valuables from the baggage of predominantly female passengers. Although a significant amount of gold and silver jewelry was found at his Paharganj home, he also admitted that he had sold the stolen items to Sharad Jain, a jeweler in nearby Karol Bagh, on multiple occasions.
The authorities claimed that the burglar who boarded airplanes had previously “gained success” robbing trains. The individual “went silent” after being apprehended and afterwards made the decision to plot thefts at airports.