A many days agone a man arrested in Chhattisgarh’s Durg let slip a putatively inoffensive comment — that his friend in Delhi had carried out a ‘ big thievery ’.
Curious, ASI Shamit Tiwari, who was questioning the indicted, Lokesh Rao, bear the information to a coworker, who also passed it on to a batchmate in the Delhi Police.
This proved to be a pivotal indication in cracking the Rs 25- crore pinch, Delhi’s biggest, at a jewellery store in Bhogal. An ferocious inquiry, that involved scanning hundreds of CCTVs and a platoon travelling to Chhattisgarh, crowned in the arrest of not a gang of three- four people, but a single, albeit, notorious jewel pincher.
The indicted, Lokesh Shrivas( 31) alias Golu, was arrested from Bhilai for allegedly stealing gold and diamond jewellery from Umrao Singh Jewellers over the weekend.
Police said it has, prima facie, come to light that he executed the crime each by himself over an 18- hour period. He entered the store around10.45 pm on Sunday( September 24) and left around 5 pm the coming day.
As the request area is shut on Monday, the theft was only discovered Tuesday morning. CCTV footage inside the shop — before it was disconnected — also shows a masked person on the ground bottom.
In police circles, Shrivas is ignominious for chancing unique ways to stealthily enter his target shops with a movable drill. He began committing thefts in 2006 — a ‘ one- man- show ’ who started off by burgling small jewellery shops in his birthplace in Chhattisgarh Kabirdham before ‘ expanding ’ to countries like Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and now, to Delhi.
In 2010, he was declared an externed miscreant and not allowed to enter the limits of his home quarter after being involved in around half-a-dozen cases of burglaries there.
Elderly Bilaspur police officers who have handled Shrivas’s cases told The Indian Express, “ He substantially operated alone and targeted jewellery shops. He always carried out an expansive recce beforehand to get the lay of the land. He also carried with him a movable knife which he used to drill holes into walls and strongrooms. ”
On February 24 last time, the Andhra Pradesh Police had arrested him with6.4 kg of gold worth Rs 3 crore from Vizianagaram. “ Shrivas was also arrested in February 2020 in a burglary case at one Parak Jewellers in Bhilai where police recovered jewellery worth Rs2.59 crore along with cash over Rs1.47 lakh, ” said another officer, requesting obscurity.
Explaining his modus operandi, the officer took the case of the theft at Parak Jewellers and said “ Shrivas first climbed to the roof using a bamboo graduation.
He also made a hole in the lift’s conduit wall and climbed down to the alternate bottom, cut the lift’s tulle, and entered the shop.
He broke the door of the strongroom and stole the jewellery. ” Police said the indicted entered the structure on February 10 but committed the theft the coming day to avoid the vexation of digging a hole in the wall the same day. He left around 11:45 pm on February 11, said an officer, adding that he didn’t have any food for the coming 23 hours in order to avoid any possibilities of sightings from police.
While Shrivas substantially worked alone, in some cases, depending on the scale of the thievery and the target shop, he took along one or two cohorts.
“ He met one of his cohorts, Lokesh, a occupant of Bhilai, inside Durg captivity in March 2020. Both of them planned to burglarize two jewellery shops in Odisha’s Berhampur. While in jail, Shrivas also made musketeers with another person, Srikakulam, who came his abettor in several thieveries, ” added the officer.
On why he took to crime, officers entered a curious response Shrivas claimed he possessed a small parlour in Kabirdham and took to theft so he could collect enough plutocrat to open a bigger and well- equipped one.
According to DCP( Southeast Delhi) Rajesh Deo, one of the CCTVs examined showed a man with a pack entering the structure next to the burgled store on the night of September 24. Shrivas was linked as the high suspect.
Said an officer, “ Grounded on inputs from Chhatisgarh Police on September 28, police looked up Shrivas’s print on Google. “ This, along with his print with Chhattisgarh Police from March 2023, matched the man in the footage. ”
Police said sweats were also made to ascertain how he’d fled the Capital. Grounded on specialized surveillance, it was revealed that the indicted had reserved a 9 pm machine from Delhi to Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, on September 25. “ A platoon was incontinently dispatched to Kashmere Gate ISBT and the suspect was tracked to Bhilai Police recovered footage of him getting a ticket. A platoon of Delhi officers reached Raipur around 8:30 pm on September 28; they were joined by officers of Raipur and Durg Police, ” added the DCP.
Meanwhile, officers from Bilaspur police station reached Lokesh’s den at Kabirdham on the morning of September 28 but he escaped.
“ His associate, Shiva Chandravashi, still, was set up there and arrested. Around 7 pm, Shiva led Bilaspur police to Lokesh’s alternate den at Smriti Nagar in Bhilai.
The Delhi platoon also reached by 11 pm. On September 29 around5.45 am, Lokesh showed up and was chased by Delhi and Bilaspur police before he was arrested, ” said an officer.
The DCP said his den was searched and the stolen jewellery recovered “ The seizure was made by Bilaspur Police. ”
