DJB clerk says Rs 1 lakh stolen from house; thieves say Rs 50 lakh

The incident also brought out the honesty of three policemen who did not “waver” at the sight of huge amounts of money recovered from the thieves,Additional Commissioner of Police (East) K C Dwivedi told reporters on Wednesday.

“It is a case of exemplary honesty,” Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta said.

Todi told police that Rs 29 lakh they recovered from him were part of around Rs 50 lakh he along with his brother- in-law Pawan stole from the Moti Nagar residence of Kuldeep Kumar,an Upper Division Clerk of Delhi Jal Board.

“Head Constable Satendra and Constable Sudhir Kumar were patrolling when they saw a youth in suspicious circumstances. They apprehended him and during a search,they found huge cash with him,” Dwivedi said.

The money was counted in the presence of a witness and was totalled at Rs 29 lakh. Later,a raid was conducted at the residence of Pawan and his brother Vikas to whom the former had given Rs 21 lakh to hide.

“Rs 21 lakh were recovered from Vikas’ residence where he had hidden it inside a bed and Vikas was arrested,” Dwivedi said.

During interrogation,he said,the duo told police that Pawan and Todi had stolen the money from a house in Moti Nagar which was later identified as that of Kumar.

However,Kumar had told police that only Rs 1-1.25 lakh of cash and jewellery were missing from the house in the burglary which took place on December two night when he and his family were out for his nephew’s marriage.

Asked whether they were investigating the source of income of the the government employee,a senior police official said they were investigating the matter. “We will also inform the matter to the competent authority,” he said.

Dwivedi said the policemen “showed unflinching integrity and high professional conduct while they had an opportunity to conceal the recovery of the huge amount of unaccounted cash from a thief in the middle of night”.

The three policemen were given ‘Asadharan Karya Puraskar’ for their services besides a cash reward of Rs 10,000 to each.