According to the west district police, when SI Ram Phal and his staff were patrolling near Ring Road at Moti Nagar on April 5, they received a tip-off that a gang of robbers had assembled in a nearby nursery. They immediately raided the spot and arrested the youths.

On sustained interrogation, the five confessed that they had formed a gang to commit crime. They had apparently tried to rob a labourer in Sultanpuri. The frisking revealed nothing og value, so they ran off with his shoes. In another incident, they took a lift in a tempo in Azadpur Mandi posing as transporters. Thereafter, they robbed all the passengers of their personal belongings and then abandoned the vehicle.

Around a fortnight back, they had robbed two persons in Bangla Sahib Gurudwara and Connaught Place of Rs 450. On their way back home, they robbed a cyclist of Rs 50. They reportedly listed many such incidents, wherein they had robbed people of Rs 100 or Rs 150. Their biggest haul was of Rs 950 from three individuals. On their way back, they gatecrashed a wedding dinner.

According to the police, they had a unique modus operandi. They would start out at 10 pm, hire an autorickshaw and descend upon any labourer walking by. Even though it did not get them much, these robberies were never reported. Armed with three self-actuated Rampuri knives, they would roam around in Connaught Place, Dev Nagar, Karol Bagh, Zakhira, Kirti Nagar, Moti Nagar, Punjabi Bagh, Rani Bagh, Nangloi, Uttam Nagar, Vikaspuri, Tilak Nagar and Sultanpuri.