New Delhi: A chef of a five-star hotel here was arrested in connection with a string of snatchings in South Delhi, the Delhi Police said on Wednesday, adding that he was a DU graduate and a hotel management degree holder but had resorted to snatchings to pay off his gambling debts, the police said on Wednesday.
Based on a tip-off, 35-year-old Harish Chauhan was arrested from the Neb Sarai area on Tuesday evening, where he had gone to find more targets for snatchings, they said.
The accused, who holds degrees in BA and hotel management, worked at the Oberoi Hotel near the IGI Airport and had a good salary but he took to snatching to pay off his gambling debts, the police said, adding that his role in as many as 15 snatchings is being probed. However, the hotel management, when contacted, insisted that Harish was a "back-end staffer".
During the interrogation, the arrestee also confessed that two years back he started gambling through the online gambling application — 'Satta King'. Initially, he succeeded in an attempt or two, but later on, due to failure in gambling, he owed a huge debt.
So to pay out his debts, he opted for an easy way to earn money by snatching the gold chain and mobile phones from the soft targets in the morning and evening hours in places of South Delhi.
A resident of Sangam Vihar, Harish especially targeted women going for a walk or travelling to offices near Saket Metro Station. Other times, he would lurk in the park adjoining the Metro station or at Ambedkar Nagar bus stand on Mehrauli-Badarpur (MB) Road, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said.
After snatching valuables from his victims, he would usually shout "Pakdo-Pakdo" or "Chor-Chor" to give an impression that he was chasing the culprit and would run like a trained athlete, he said, adding that he operated alone as a "lone-wolf".
Thakur said for more than a month, his team scrutinised hundreds of CCTV footage and analysed the timings and specific areas of incidents to nab the suspect. Based on a tip-off, the team laid a trap on MB Road in the Neb Sarai area. "Finding himself trapped, the accused took out his country-made pistol but the police personnel overpowered him and snatched the firearm from him," he said.
After his arrest, Harish disclosed that he had sold three snatched gold chains to a goldsmith in the Sangam Vihar area. On the basis of his testimony, police arrested Rajender Aggarwal for buying the stolen property, the DCP added. A country-made pistol with live cartridge, four snatched mobile phones, and four gold chains were recovered from his possession, the police officer added.