India’s jewel thief: why Delhi guest house owner robbed commuters & flyers since 2005

A 40-year-old jewel thief was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport for being involved in a series of thefts on at least 200 flights. Rajesh Kapoor allegedly stole many valuables from handbags of co-passengers by mainly targeting elderly women.

The Delhi Police said the accused has travelled for more than 110 days during the past year to commit the thefts, and he used to assume the identity of his deceased brother, Rishi Kapoor.

The arrest came after a passenger lost her jewellery worth ₹7 lakh while travelling from Hyderabad to Delhi on an Air India flight. In another theft, the accused slunk a passenger’s jewellery items worth ₹ 20 lakh in a flight from Amritsar to Delhi.

At a press conference at the IGI airport in New Delhi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI) Usha Rangnani said Kapoor had been arrested from Paharganj, where he allegedly kept the stolen jewellery. He was planning to sell them to Sharad Jain, 46, who had also been arrested from Karol Bagh.

CCTV footage from Delhi and Amritsar airports and the flight manifests were analysed, and police found the suspect present on both flights on which theft incidents were reported.

The officer said the phone number of the accused was obtained from the airlines concerned, but he had provided a fake number at the time of booking. After technical surveillance, Kapoor's original phone number was traced, and he was caught.

After interrogation, Kapoor disclosed that he spent most of the cash on online and offline gambling. He was found involved in 11 cases of theft, gambling and criminal breach of trust, out of which five cases were of airport.

Another police officer said Kapoor would target vulnerable passengers, particularly elderly women.

"Recognising the tendency of such passengers to carry valuables in their handbags, he strategically travelled in premium domestic flights, notably Air India and Vistara, bound for destinations like Delhi, Chandigarh, and Hyderabad," the officer said.

The officer said exploiting the chaos of boarding, he would secretly rifle through overhead cabins, carefully assessing and stealing valuables from unsuspecting victims' handbags while passengers settled into their seats.

On several occasions, after zeroing in on its target, he even got his seat changed from the airline to sit near the target, said the officer.

According to TOI, the 40-year-old man had been allegedly operating since 2005. For many years, he allegedly stole from passengers in AC coaches of trains. Later, he switched to flights.

His method, carefully timed to coincide with the distractions inherent in the boarding process, allowed him to operate undetected.

(With inputs from PTI)