Metro selfie helps crack theft case, bust gang of women pickpockets

It was a casual on-metro selfie that a US-based NRI woman had clicked which helped the CISF recover her stolen gold jewellery worth Rs 22 lakh and bust a gang of women pickpockets from a Metro station here.

The CISF on Tuesday said they nabbed six alleged women pickpockets at a station here who used to operate in crowded areas and target the metro travellers.

Nilam Kumari, the California-based NRI software engineer, had on December 9 filed a complaint that her jewellery bag was stolen near Central Secretariat station when she was travelling with her husband, CISF officials said.

“The couple had valued the stolen jewellery at Rs 22 lakh in their FIR,” they said.

They said they cracked the case with the help of a ‘selfie’ Nilam had clicked on-metro and submitted it to the police. The ‘selfie’ had one of the accused pickpocket woman in the background.

They said the identified the woman in the background and apprehended her, who gave information about the other five during interrogation.

The CISF then began monitoring the movement of the woman and nabbed them today from Chawri Bazar Metro station. They were questioned extensively during which they spilled the beans. On of the six woman, identified as Kamla, act as their leader, they said. 

The accused woman also surrendered the items they had stolen, which included the bag containing jewellery belonging to Nilam.

The CISF has handed over the accused women to the police for further interrogation as there was a possibility that they could be involved in other such cases.

Appreciating the investigative skills of the three Central Industrial Security Force personnel, the force’s chief O P Singh announced a prize of Rs 20,000 cash for Sub-Inspector Monika and Constables Noorjahan and Nasrin Khatun.