Revenge game: Ex-team coach steals mobile phones of present players

New Delhi: Looking to avenge his removal as the coach of Delhi United Football Club, a disgruntled former district-level footballer stole the mobile phones and wallets of the club's 12 players while they were busy on the field during the Delhi Football Club League Tournament.

The Delhi Police have arrested the accused, identified as Vikas Pathak, who played district-level football for the Lions Football Club here for six years before being hired as a coach at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in 2011.

However, one of the other coaches, Saurabh, complained to the authorities about Pathak not being punctual, following which he was removed from his position. Saurabh eventually was made the coach of Delhi United Football Club.

After this episode, Pathak's career in football went downhill as a sports academy here had tried opening by the name of Shubham Football Academy in Preet Vihar ran into losses and became unsustainable. He then went on to work at a mobile repairing shop but never gave up on avenging his removal as a coach.

Police on March 13 had received a call about the mobile phones and wallets of 12 players of the Delhi United Football Club being stolen. The wallets collectively had around Rs 10,000 in cash. The players had said that after they returned to their locker room following the match, their lockers were ransacked and valuables missing.

"During their investigation, police, through CCTV footage and call data records, managed to track down one of the stolen mobile phones to a person, who on interrogation, claimed that the accused - Pathak - had sold him the phone, before he returned it to him when Pathak was unable to produce its original receipt," Atul Kumar Thakur, DCP(South), said.

At his behest, police conducted a raid at Pathak's house and arrested him before recovering nine of the stolen mobile phones and the money.

According to police, Pathak, a resident of Pandav Nagar, had done a course in Hotel Management from one Pusa Institute here and had worked as a Restaurant Manager at The Oberoi and The Ashoka.

The accused played football at the district level for almost six years for one 'Lions Club Football Team' before he was hired as a coach at the stadium in 2011. However, on the complaint of one of the coaches—Saurabh—who accused him of being unpunctual, he was removed from the post.

Later, the accused started one 'Shubham Football Academy' at Preet Vihar, which he was forced to shut down after it didn't succeed. Thereafter, he opened a mobile repairing shop.

However, in a bid to avenge his removal as a coach, Pathak committed the theft on his team as he was already familiar with the dressing room, police said.