Three arrested for theft of laptops, mobile phones

All reported to be drug addicts, one of them used to teach

The UT Police on Monday claimed to have arrested a three-member gang which had been involved in various incidents of thefts of laptops and mobile phones. The accused have been identified as Banson Masih (37), Nasib Chand (26) and Tejwinder Singh (33).

All the accused are reportedly drug addicts and got into thefts to fulfil their need to buy drugs. Banson is a resident of Dadu Majra Colony while Chand and Tejwinder reside in Dhanas and Sector 40 respectively.

All the accused have cleared Plus Two. Banson has previously taught adult education to schoolchildren under a government-sponsored scheme at Palsora for a year. He had left the job a few months back after which his wife took up the job.

Addressing a press conference, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Deshraj said, "We had been placing nakas at various points, but the nakas were not proving to be effective. Therefore, we decided that nakas would be placed for short intervals (15-20 minute) during patrolling so that people could not bypass us."

The modus operandi of the accused was that Banson and Tejwinder struck at busy places and entered open rooms and stole unattended laptops and mobile handsets. Later, the stolen goods were disposed of with the help of other accused.

He added that the move worked, as Banson was arrested by a police team from Sector 23-24 light point while he was riding a motorcycle bearing a fake registration number. During verification it was found that the motorcycle was stolen from Sector 56.

During his questioning, he confessed that he had stolen a number of laptops and mobile phones from PEC, Panjab University and PGIMER and disposed them of with the help of Tejwinder and Nasib Chand. Chand ran a mobile repair shop in Dhanas and used the parts of the mobiles phones in the repair.

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