Delhi police took 19 Years to catch India’s ‘VIP Flying Thief’
200 fights in 110 days – Delhi Police took time to arrest Jewel Thief.
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.
Past 1 year the Jewel thief carried over 200 flights to steal assets from countless passengers.
Jewel Thief, who used to steal valuable items from co-passengers on flights. Rajesh Kapoor had been carrying out thefts in trains since 2005. Police say Rajesh used the identity of his dead brother, Rishi Kapoor, to carry out multiple thefts while boarding planes.
In 110 days, Rajesh took 200 flights and carried out thefts of mostly jewelry. When police raided his guest house in Paharganj of the National Capital, Delhi, they found Rajesh with diamonds, silvers, and melted gold.
Two passengers complained to the police within two months of each other, which is how Kapoor ended up in the net. A passenger on an Air India flight from Hyderabad to Delhi filed a complaint on April 11, while a US citizen on an Amritsar-to-Delhi flight approached police on February 2nd. Both claimed to have misplaced jewelry that was in their cabin bags.
Between February 2nd and April 11, Rajesh carried out two aerial thefts stealing ornaments worth Rs.27 lakh. On February 2nd a passenger’s jewelry items worth Rs.20 lakh from a flight from Amritsar to Delhi. On April 11, an Air India passenger lost jewelry worth rupees 7,00,000 while traveling from Hyderabad to Delhi. These incidents led to an investigation in which police found that Kapoor was present on both flights.
Police stated that: “The modus operandi of the accused was that, he used to target senior citizens on the flights. He used to follow them from departure, especially the citizens whose priority check-in was done at the boarding gates with them only he used to enter and insist they keep their luggage. The official went on to explain that Rajesh Kapoor would take advantage of the confusion surrounding the boarding process by stealthily searching overhead cabins for valuables hidden in the handbags of unsuspecting victims while other passengers were busy occupying their seats.
He even planned seat swaps in a few cases so he could be closer to his targets and take advantage of the distractions that come with boarding to stay undercover”, informed Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) IGI Airport, Usha Rangnani.
After looking through hours of airport CCTV footage, the police detained Rajesh Kapoor.
Police tried to contact him on his mobile number registered on airport records, but they found it was fake. Further investigation led police to his original contact details, through which they landed at the doorstep of a Ricky Deluxe guest house, which Rajesh owns. They nabbed the accused with the stolen valuables and cash.
But what led Rajesh to become the jewel thief?
“Ricky Deluxe,” a guest house in Delhi Paharganj near the New Delhi Railway Station, is owned by Rajesh. The other floors of the guest house belonged to the clients; the man lived on the third floor. According to the police, he operated a mobile repair shop in Delhi in addition to his money exchange business.
He operated out of several airports, including Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Amritsar, and took valuables from the bags of mostly female passengers. Many pieces of gold and silver jewelry were found in his Paharganj home, but he also admitted that he had sold the stolen items to Sharad Jain, a jeweler in nearby Karol Bagh, on multiple occasions.
Earlier, he used to steal assets from trains in luxury coaches, And there, he was caught. He remained silent for a few time but again started at a larger scale, in flights with complete planning.
Apart from theft, Kapoor was accused of 11 other crimes, including criminal breach of trust and gambling, five of which had a connection to crimes at airports.
