Delhi metro: Gang of women thieves targeting female commuters arrested

A gang of women thieves, who used to target women commuters in the Delhi Metro, have been arrested by the Metro Police, officials said.

Four women of the gang, who were involved in a dozen cases of theft, have been arrested. Jitendra Mani, Delhi Metro Deputy Commissioner of Police, said that the accused women gang members used to steal valuable articles from the handbags of women commuters. The Metro Police had been receiving constant complaints in this regard.

The accused women were identified as Laxmi, Shashi, Sarita and Reshma. An FIR against them was lodged with the Kashmere Gate police station.

"One Rahul had reported one of the cases to us. He told us that his uncle and aunt came to Delhi from Patna. They boarded the Delhi Metro from Kashmere Gate station. They got off at the New Delhi Railway Metro station. As they were exiting the Metro using an escalator, the bag of his aunt containing valuables, cash and gold jewellery was stolen," the official said.

The Metro Police which was already getting a number of complaints decided to examine the CCTV of all the Metro stations. They scanned more than a thousand CCTV footages to get a clue about the accused.

The Metro Police official said that the accused Laxmi was identified and seen in the footage standing along with her three accomplices. The police checked the records and came to know that Laxmi had a previous criminal record.

The police said that they raided the house of Laxmi in Delhi's Anand Parbat area and she was arrested from there.

During questioning, she broke down and confessed that she and her accomplices were involved in several theft cases as well as targeting women commuters on the Delhi Metro.

Later, at her instance, her three accomplices were also arrested.