A 24-year-old youth, an employee at an accessories shop in Delhi’s Karol Bagh, was arrested for allegedly stealing Rs 8 lakh from the shop, officials said on Thursday.
The accused, Gaurav Soni, from Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, had allegedly used duplicate keys to get access to the shop, an officer mentioned. With the stolen money, he got himself an expensive iPhone, a foldable phone, and branded clothes with the stolen money, an officer further said.
Nidhin Valsan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), said, “The matter came to us on July 21, when the shop owner approached the Karol Bagh police with a complaint that Rs 8 lakh in cash had been stolen from the premises.
With this information, an FIR was registered at the police station, and an investigation into this case was taken up by the police, the officer added.
A police team was formed to trace the suspect and the CCTV footage from several locations, and the digital footprints were followed to zero in on Soni’s location.
Following the leads gathered, raids were conducted in Gorakhpur and Kanpur that eventually led the police to get their hands on Soni from Kanpur’s Yashoda Nagar.
During the interrogation, the accused confessed to the theft and subsequently disclosed that he had hidden the stolen cash in an almirah at his residence, DCP Valsan said.
The officers confiscated a total of Rs 5.5 lakh in cash, an iPhone worth Rs 1.5 lakh, and a Motorola foldable mobile phone from his possession.
It later came out that Soni had already spent about Rs 1 lakh on clothes, accessories, and a lavish lifestyle, police said.
“Soni was working at a shop in Karol Bagh, where he committed the crime. He had allegedly planned the act and procured duplicate keys to gain access to the shop outside business hours,” said the officer.
Further investigation into the matter is underway, he added.