New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Friday said that it had arrested two thieves and one receiver of stolen goods for allegedly stealing as many as 51 Wi-Fi modems and optical fiber units from rooftops of homes all over South Delhi and selling them for Rs 200 each, adding that the arrests had solved 11 such cases.
Officials said that the arrested accused, identified as Mohd Suhail and Mohd Salman, were good friends with each other and were addicted
to psychotropic drugs. They added that the two started stealing whatever they could to buy drugs.
According to the police, the receiver, identified as Arjun was also arrested in the case.
DCP (South East Delhi) Esha Pandey said that the accused first started off by stealing a couple of motorcycles from the Jaitpur and Usmanpur areas, which they often used to commit snatchings and thefts.
Following this, they started uprooting the Wi-Fi equipment of people's homes from rooftops and poles wherever they could across South Delhi.
A large number of these thefts were in the South-East part of the city — largely in Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Nagar and Jaitpur areas.
The police said that they had been receiving complaints of stolen Wi-Fi equipment from outside people's premises for the last one month. Following the volume of complaints, a dedicated team was formed to investigate the cases, with HC Sanjay, Ct Vikas and led by IC/PP Jangpura SI Amit Kumar under the supervision of the Lajpat Nagar ACP
The police said that they received a tip-off about the robbers on October 12, with the informant describing a theft that was underway in Pant Nagar of the Bhogal area.
Responding to this, the team laid a trap for the thieves near the location, following which around 7 pm, they spotted the two accused on a motorcycle. They stopped near a pole with the rider ready to go at a moment's notice as his friend was trying to uproot the equipment from a nearby pole. The police tram was quick to overpower the accused.
Upon interrogation, both Salman and Suhail lived in the Jamia Nagar and Usmanpur areas respectively. Following this, they led the police to Arjun, from whose residence the cops recovered around 29 Wi-Fi modem equipment and another stolen motorcycle.
Arjun, the police said, told them that he had an office in Jaitpur for supplying internet to locals and he used to purchase the stolen equipment from the accused in order to sell them at higher profit margins to his customers.