Jamia student in gang of burglars

THE ACCUSED, IDENTIFIED AS RAZAULMUSTAFA, IS A THIRD YEAR CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENT AT JAMIA

NEWDELHI: A 22-year-old student, pursuing engineering from Jamia Millia Islamia, was among three men arrested for a series of burglaries conducted in south Delhi , police said on Sunday.

The accused, identified as Raza-ul-mustafa, is a third year civil engineering student at Jamia and has been involved in two previous registered cases of thefts, said Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police (southeast).

DCP Biswal said Mustafa and his two friends, Mohd Faim and Mohd Naim, broke into houses in areas like New Friends Colony, Sarita Vihar and Jamia Nagar . Faim was found to be involved in 11 previous cases of burglaries and Naim in one.

“Since most of these neighbourhoods are watched by CCTV cameras, they would wear masks while committing the burglaries. They used house-breaking tools to force their way into houses whose occupants were away,” said Biswal.

Mustafa and two of his associ- ates were caught while they were carrying stolen goods on a stolen motorcycle to sell them to a receiver, said Biswal. Police have also arrested Rahul Sharma, who bought the stolen goods and disposed it for the gang.

“The three burglars wanted to splurge on their girlfriends and impress them with money,” said the DCP on the motives behind the burglaries.

Five laptops, one LED TV and a stolen Yamaha FZ motorcycle have been recovered from their possession, police said.

Mustafa, Faim and Naim live in the same neighbourhood in Jamia Nagar. “Naim is a house painter and came in touch with Faim while he was painting his house four years ago. They then decided to commit burglaries and roped in Mustafa to help them with the crimes,” said the DCP.