A Class 9 student has has been apprehended for allegedly stealing his mother's gold to finance his female friend's birthday party and gift her an iPhone in southwest Delhi's Najafgarh area, police said Wednesday.

The matter came to light after the boy's mother lodged an FIR reporting house theft by an unknown person, following which a probe was launched and the teenager was identified as the culprit.

Police said that the accused sold a gold earring, gold ring and gold chain of his mother to two different goldsmiths in the Kakrola area here and bought the high-end phone for the girl, with whom he was allegedly in a relationship.

The police have arrested a 40-year-old goldsmith, identified as Kamal Verma, and recovered one gold ring and earring.

"On August 3, an incident of house theft was reported by a woman in which she reported the theft of two gold chains, one pair of gold earrings and one gold ring from her house on August 2, by unknown person between 8 am to 3 pm," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh said.

Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered into the matter and an investigation was taken up, the officer said.

"CCTV footage of the crime scene was checked, but no suspicious activity was found near the house of the complainant at the time of the incident. The team further examined the neighbourhood for any clues but no one witnessed any suspicious activity during the said time," the DCP added.

Ruling out the involvement of outsiders, the team then focused on the family members and found that the son of the complainant was missing since the burglary. The team started gathering information and questioned his school friends.

"Our team got to know that he (accused) had purchased a new iPhone worth Rs 50,000. The team conducted many raids on his hideouts at Dharampura, Kakrola and Najafgarh, but everytime he managed to escape. On Tuesday, a tipoff was received that the juvenile will come to his home at about 6 pm, following which a trap was laid near the house," DCP Singh said.

At about 6.15 pm, the juvenile was intercepted near his residence. Sensing the police trap, he tried to evade but was nabbed, he added.

"During search, an Apple mobile was recovered from his possession. When he was interrogated, he denied initially his involvement," the officer said.

However, he later confessed that he had sold the stolen gold to two goldsmiths, following which Verma was arrested from his shop, he added.

"The juvenile said that he is student of Class 9 and studying in a private school in Najafgarh. His father died due to illness and he did not have any interest in studies and scored average marks," the DCP said.

His friends told the police that he was in a relationship with a girl studying in the same class, he said.

"In order to make a stunning impression over his girlfriend on her birthday, he approached his mother to give him money but due to limited resources, she denied and advised him to concentrate on his studies. Angered over the denial, he decided to steal money from his house," the DCP further said, adding that further probe into the matter is underway.

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