When cops came calling, Bunty Chor was watching his news on TV

Handed over to Kerala Police, to be produced in court today

Delhi's notorious thief Devinder Singh alias Bunty Chor, 41, was nabbed by the police on Saturday after he checked into a lodge in Mangalwar Peth area in Pune. The police said Singh was on his way back from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, where he had executed a heist in the house of an NRI businessman. When the police entered his lodge room, he was found watching a television news story about his latest act in Kerala.

Involved in over 500 burglaries across the country and arrested several times, his unique ways had inspired Bollywood to do a flick Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! in 2008. He has also featured in the television show Big Boss and has been on the run after his recent arrest by the Bhopal police and subsequent release on bail.

Additional Commissioner of Police Chandrashekhar Daithankar said, "Singh checked into the lodge at 2.45 am on Saturday. He was in a hurry to go to his room and did not take the remaining money back after he paid the advance. He wore a hat. The manager felt there was something suspicious about the man and informed the owner Vijay Mane."

The police said Singh,while checking in, had shown his driver's licence with the name Devinder Singh as the identity proof and gave its photocopy to the manager. "When the manager told Mane that name of the person was Devinder Singh, he recalled reading a news in The Indian Express of January 23. Thr picture on the photocopy was grainy and Mane asked his staffer to get the licence from him," said Daithankar.

The staffer brought the licence from the room. "I saw that he was the same man whose photo I had seen in the newspaper. I alerted the Samarth police station that a suspected criminal was staying in the lodge," said Mane.

... contd.

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