Burglar known among friends as ‘Spiderman’ lands in police web

A 24-year-old burglar, called ‘Spiderman’ by his friends, has been arrested along with his three accomplices, police said.

Jai Prakash’s friends called him Spiderman because he used to climb buildings effortlessly.

The police also arrested Ravi Kumar, who assisted Prakash in the burglaries, Sanjay Goyal and Pramod Kumar Shah, who bought the stolen items from Prakash. The four were caught between October 7 and 9 from Subhash Place and other areas in northwest Delhi, police said.

The police have seized wristwatches, diamond and gold jewellery, mobile phones, laptops and vehicles from them.

A resident of Jahangirpuri, Prakash had rented a room in Majlis Park to live.

“He could climb as high as fifth or sixth floor of a building with no ropes. He would climb the sanitary pipes or PNG gas pipelines to enter homes,” said a police officer.

Prakash told the police that he would conduct reconnaissance of buildings in posh residential colonies during the day time to identify targets. “Prakash used to hide himself in a park close to the building he planned to target. He used to wear a pair of black pants and black t-shirt so that he wasn’t seen during the night,” the officer said.

Police said Prakash mostly committed burglaries alone. But in some cases, he took Ravi’s help. Prakash used to deposit stolen gold jewellery in various gold finance companies and took cash against the deposited gold.

“Goyal and Shah helped Prakash in disposing of other jewellery items and stolen articles,” added the officer. Shah ran a jewellery shop in Sahipur village in Shalimar Bagh area for the last twelve years. He purchased stolen jewellery and sold them to another jeweller in Karol Bagh area, police said.