Running a jewellery shop for 14 years by taking stolen jewellery from robbers all over the city, Anand Kumar Soni who was also wanted in a MCOCA case and had several cases of snatching and robbery registered against him, was arrested by the Delhi Police.
A proclaimed offender, the Commissioner himself had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 on his arrest. The police have also recovered a small electronic weighing machine from his possession.
“We had arrested all snatchers and robbers across Delhi. Yet, street crimes such as chain snatching were on the rise. To put a stop to this, we started looking at the root problem and found that Soni was the one to whom all the robbers sold their stolen jewellery,” said a senior police officer.
Soni was first arrested in 2013 by Rani Bagh police and 22 snatching cases were worked out. He was closely associated with other notorious robbers such as Sandeep, Anil and Vikram. Even after all three were arrested and interrogated, they failed to reveal his whereabouts. “To nab the accused, the Special Task Force took over the matter and on February 10, one head constable got a tip-off about a man who was to receive stolen items and was also a history sheeter of Punjabi Bagh police station will be coming to Shiva Market on a scooter. Our informer identified him and we apprehended Soni,” added the official.
During sustained interrogation, he broke down and revealed that he started a jewellery shop in 1993 named Raj Jewellers which was in business till 2007. All the jewellery was sourced by robbers across Delhi who met him at a common point and gave him the jewellery. Since he carried the weighing machine, he weighed the items and paid the price. He won the trust of all the robbers and even informed their family members if they were caught.
Respective police stations have been informed of his arrest and cases will be worked out accordingly.