A 19-year-old youth, who had been roaming pockets of south Kolkata disguised as a ragpicker to identify empty houses, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly breaking into a Dhakuria house and stealing gold ornaments and a mobile phone, police said.
The police had received a complaint of burglary from a house in Dhakuria Station Lane last Friday and found that the theft was committed within a span of 10 minutes, when the house was empty.
“Someone who knew exactly when the house would be empty had broken multiple padlocks to enter the house. He then broke the cupboard lock to steal gold ornaments,” said an officer of Lake police station where the theft was reported. The “operation” lasted for around 10 minutes before the family members returned, he said.
According to the complaint, four gold necklaces, one gold bangle, three pairs of gold earrings, four gold finger rings and one mobile phone were stolen from the house. The investigation was handed over to the anti-burglary section of the detective department.
During investigation and from the statements of the residents of the neighbourhood, police learned that a ragpicker had been spotted in the locality in the last few days.
“We started checking with other ragpickers and found that a boy had recently tried to sell some jewellery to a junk dealer,” said an officer.
The police zeroed in on Murshid Paik alias Bachcha and arrested him from his home in Narendrapur on the southern fringes of Kolkata.
An officer said Murshid had admitted that he was part of a gang whose members posed as ragpickers and kept an eye on empty houses in south Kolkata neighbourhoods.
Based on his statement police recovered a part of the stolen booty and the mobile phone from the house of one of his relatives.
The police said Murshid was active in parts of Dhakuria, Rabindra Sarobar and Golpark, while areas like Tangra and Topsia were covered by other boys of his gang.
Murshid has been sent to police custody till December 18.