Delhi police arrest notorious robber wanted in 13 cases after six-month chase across three states
New Delhi: Delhi Police have arrested a notorious robber who was wanted in connection with 13 cases registered across various police stations in the national capital. The operation took six months and involved tracking him across three states before he was finally caught in Gujarat, officials said on Saturday.
The arrested accused has been identified as Anuj alias Antu (32), a resident of Seelampur in Delhi.
According to the police, Anuj has been involved in many cases of street crime/robberies, which occurred in the area of trans-Yamuna and was absconding despite best efforts by various units and initiation of legal process.
He had been absconding since 2022 and was declared a proclaimed offender in five cases by the concerned courts. He was also evading his presence in 8 other cases. Given the seriousness of the crime committed by the accused, the task was assigned to the team of ISC/Crime Branch to nab and arrest him.
A team started to collect information about criminal involvement, court dates, whereabouts, possible hideouts, and family and friends' details and worked on each small possibility to nab the accused.
The team took six months to follow clues about the accused and intercepted him in Delhi, Rajasthan and finally zeroed down on him in Kutch Gujarat on a specific tip and nabbed him from there on December 12, said the police.
The team had been after him for the last six months and searched for him in different states in that period. In addition to human intelligence, the team used technical surveillance to track his moments.
During interrogation accused disclosed that he used to commit robberies from a passerby in dark streets/secluded places and used to loot their cash and belongings at knife point. After committing the incident, he was arrested in some cases and released on bail.
Thereafter, he left Delhi and started living in Rajasthan, where he started working in a restaurant. Later, on observing police interception, he moved to Katch, Gujarat and till now he has been living there.
He further disclosed that to keep him out of reach from investigating agencies, he had limited the use of mobile phone and used to call family members after travelling 100 KM from his stay place, said the police.
Accused Anuj is unmarried and studied up to 10th class. He is a good cook and was working in a restaurant. He came in contact with some bad elements and became a drug addict. To fulfil his illegal need, he started committing street robberies with his accomplice. He is involved in a total of 25 cases of robbery, Snatching, theft and Arms acts in Delhi, said the police.