New Delhi : A most wanted criminal involved in over 200 burglaries across India has been arrested here, police said on Friday.
Nadeem Qureshi, a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested from east Delhi on a tip-off on Thursday night.
Police said Qureshi committed over 200 burglaries in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and .
“Several cases of burglaries were reported this year from some posh apartments in east Delhi. We deployed a special staff team to solve these case and finally arrested Qureshi on Thursday night,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Bhairon Singh Gurjar said.
Qureshi revealed that he has been committing the crimes for 21 years and has broken locks of over 500 flats during this period.
“Qureshi and his gang used to commit burglaries in apartments especially located in posh colonies. They chose these apartments randomly and mostly where guards were of old age and seemed to be lazy. They moved in luxury cars and wore costly clothes mostly suits and tie to dodge the guards.
“Two of them would enter the apartment and go towards back blocks and reach on the top floor of the apartment. Then they would target the locked flats and break the locks. After entering in the flats, they used to choose only cash and jewellery items,” the DCP said.
Qureshi and his gang members, the officer said, used a special kind of lock breaking instrument which they call “Farma Bardar or Daulatiya”, an iron made instrument weighing around 10-12 kg.
Qureshi, who joined the world of crime in 1995, used to steal cattle in his village and adjoining villages. He was arrested many times and sent to judicial custody.
“He was arrested in an attempt to murder case in his village in 1999. Later, he met with a criminal Arif and started committing burglaries. He was arrested four times in Delhi but did not turn up to courts to face trial. For last two years, he was not arrested,” the officer said, adding his other gang members have been identified as Mustaaq, Jag Jeewan, Amit and Mainuddin.