A man waiting for a hired motorcycle on Rashbehari Avenue on Friday night was hit on the head with an iron rod and robbed off his phone and wallet.

Cops scanned more than 20 CCTV cameras in the area to find the assaulter who ran from Pratapaditya Road to SP Mukherjee Road before slipping into a blanket and taking shelter among a group of sleeping footpath dwellers, police said.

Investigators used source information to track him down. Ajay Gayen, 21, was picked up from a night shelter for the homeless on Kali Temple Road in Kalighat on Monday morning. The phone and wallet have been seized.

Ajay Kumar Prasad, 31, a resident of Sarsuna, who works at a departmental store near Phoolbagan, returns home daily by making a break journey on Rashbehari Avenue. On Friday, he got “exceptionally late”. He was waiting near the Rashbehari Avenue-Pratapaditya Road crossing after booking a bike, when he was mugged, the police said.

The CCTV footage showed Gayen standing near Prasad and watching him. “A ragpicker comes into the picture and he shoos him away. He then picks an iron rod from the road and hits Prasad on the head,” an officer said.

Prasad fell on the road but tried to resist the man, the officer said. “Gayen fled with the phone and wallet.”

Prasad was bleeding from the head when he visited SSKM. He later lodged a complaint with Tollygunge police station.

Gayen, who hails from the Sonarpur area, had been staying at the night shelter. During the day, he cleans the floor of the Kalighat temple compound, the police said.

“We are checking his records. He looked desperate to snatch the phone and wallet… hitting someone with a rod can kill the person,” an officer said.