Scooter thief runs out of luck against woman sub-inspector

New Delhi, June 1

A Delhi Police woman sub-inspector chased a man in the congested lanes of Bhajanpura here and pinned him down within an hour of him stealing a scooter by tracing the live location of victim's mobile phone which was inside the boot of the stolen two-wheeler, police said on Wednesday.

In what appeared like a scene straight out of a Bollywood thriller, sub-inspector Preeti Saini traced Haider Raja via his live location, followed him along with her team dressed in civvies and finally nabbed him, they said.

Police said at one point, onlookers thought the team was unnecessarily targeting Raja as they were not dressed in khaki. The incident took place on May 30.

Ramesh Kargati, an employee in a handicraft store, left his mobile phone inside the boot of his scooter on Monday, parked the two-wheeler at Sur Yamuna Ghat and went to wash his face as part of a ritual, police said.

However, when he came back, his scooter was gone, police said.

When the matter was reported by Kargati at the Timarpur police station, the task to track the two-wheeler was assigned to Saini who acted promptly and constituted a team, police said.

Kargati told the police that his mobile which was in the boot of the scooter was on silent mode but active.

As 25-year-old Saini sprung into action and started chasing the accused, the computer cell of the north district police kept her updated with the live locations of Kargati's mobile phone from time to time, officials said. 

"We immediately tried to trace the location of the accused using live location of the mobile phone. The live location was traced to Bhajanpura. We started getting live location of the scooter within 10-15 minutes of getting the complaint. We also took the victim along with us.

"As the stolen was moving, we were getting different locations from time to time. Finally, we zeroed on a location after the scooter stopped," Saini told PTI.

Saini said after seeing the scooter parked, they decided to wait for the accused to return and surround him from all sides.

"As soon as he came near the scooter with a carry bag in his hand and tried to start the vehicle, we pinned him down. We also recovered the victim's mobile phone," Saini added.

The stolen scooter was handed over to the victim along with his phone, police said.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed that he used to steal scooters and motorcycles parked on roadside by using a master-key and then took the stolen vehicles to some other place. He would then remove their batteries so that vehicle could not be stolen further, said Sagar Singh Kalsi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).

The accused was previously involved in 22 other similar cases and has been listed as the "Bad Character" at the Subzi Mandi police station, he said.