The earring snatcher who tore off earlobes in Uttam Nagar held
IN POLICE NET Accused was identified through CCTV footage; his accomplice who used to purchase the stolen earrings also arrested
NEW DELHI: A 23-year-old man, who was allegedly involved in snatching earrings and tearing the earlobes of at least three women in the past four days in west Delhi, has been arrested.
Police said the accused, Mujbil, 23, was arrested after he was traced on the basis of a CCTV footage that investigators recovered from one of the crime spots.
One of the three victims needed plastic surgery to reconstruct her torn ear lobes.
The other two women had to get stitches to their ears after Mujbil allegedly pulled the earrings from their ears.
Two of the three cases were reported on Tuesday and Thursday from the same spot on the Najafgarh Road near Uttam Nagar (East) Metro station.
Atul Kumar Thakur, DCP (Dwarka), quoted Mujbil as confessing that he had targeted a third woman’s earrings i n nearby Vikaspuri on Friday, leaving her with torn ear lobes too. Though the victims in all three cases had seen Mujbil, he had managed to flee the spot each time.
The DCP said that because of the frequency and violent manner in which Mujbil had been operating, multiple teams had been tasked with hunting down the culprit. The police were almost certain it was the same man involved in all the three cases.
“We found CCTV footage of the suspect in the first crime. Though his face was not clear in the video, we had an idea of his clothing, mannerism and physical build. We tapped our sources for any clues about such a man,” DCP Thakur said.
The police team received a tipoff on Saturday, when they learnt that Mujbil would return to Uttam Nagar (East) Metro station, the same spot where he had allegedly committed the first two robberies. Mujbil was nabbed from the spot but he denied having anything to do with the crimes initially.
“He tried to mislead us by claiming that he worked in a garments factory. When we checked at the factory, we got to know he hadn’t reported for work for the last few days,” said the DCP.
When police found that Mujbil was wearing a new set of clothes, he was asked to lead the investigators to the shop he bought the garments from. “The CCTV footage of the shop showed that he had arrived there in the same clothes that he was wearing while committing the first crime,” said Thakur.
Mujbil then allegedly confessed during interrogation and gave the police one earring that he was yet to dispose. Police said they have also arrested Sudhir Soni, a 19-year-old, who purchased the stolen earrings.
“No other criminal involvements of Mujbil have emerged so far. But he said he neither targeted mobile phones, nor gold chains. He found it easy to rob earrings of women. He made it a point to rob both earrings, no matter the injury to his victims. He wanted the money to buy drugs,” said the DCP.