Delhi: Why bag lifter gang targeted black, blue luggage on railway stations

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has busted a gang of professional bag lifters who posed as cloth traders during peak hours in railway stations to avoid detection on CCTV. Four men were arrested, an official said on Monday.

Amit Kumar (37), Karan Kumar (27), Gaurav (33), and Punit Mahto (38), targeted passengers boarding and alighting trains, particularly at crowded stations, stealing unattended blue or black luggage, and replacing stolen bags with lookalike ones to mislead surveillance systems, he said.

"The gang's latest theft was reported on July 3, when the railway enquiry received a complaint about the disappearance of five bags from coach A-1 of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra SF Express at New Delhi Railway Station.

Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered and a probe launched," a senior police officer said.

On reviewing CCTV footage, our teams tracked the suspects to a hotel in Paharganj, the officer said. A raid led to the arrest of Amit, Karan, and Gaurav, all residents of Bihar. Punit was arrested later from Anand Vihar Railway Station.

The gang stayed in hotels near railway stations under the guise of being cloth merchants. They carried multiple empty black and blue bags, which they used to execute their scheme.

After stealing similar-coloured bags from railway stations, they would transfer the contents into the dummy bags they already carried and abandon the original ones to reduce the risk of being caught, the officer added.

This method allowed them to move in and out of railway premises multiple times a day without drawing attention from CCTV operators or hotel staff, who would see them with the same-coloured bags throughout, the officer said.

Three trolley bags (two of them confirmed stolen), four 'pitthu' bags, five handbags, two mobile phones, and Rs 47,000 in cash was recovered.

The officer added that an additional four suspected stolen trolley bags were recovered from Mahto, whose criminal history spans multiple states and includes narcotics and arms charges.

They also used safe houses near the Badarpur-Faridabad border to stash looted goods before selling them in grey markets.

"The accused were highly organised. They frequently changed SIM cards, mobile phones, and used aliases during hotel check-ins to avoid leaving a digital trail," the officer added.

Investigation is underway to link the recovered property with pending theft cases and identify other members of the network.