New Delhi: While incidents of cash and jewellery theft is often heard of in Delhi, the intent of two robbers in a recent case has left many surprised. The men from Uttar Pradesh were arrested for stealing 118 kg of hair from a trader in national capital.
The accused, identified as Mangel Sain (42) and Ajay Kumar (42), were arrested in outer Delhi's Nangloi area for allegedly robbing wigs worth Rs 25 lakh. During investigation, it was found that Kumar is a wig trader and had even carried out a recce of the shop 3-4 days before the incident.
He had met the victims and told them that he would come back to buy 10 kg of hair. On July 27, police were informed at 8:40 am about hair robbery.
A man named Jahangir Hussain alleged that he, along with his brother Tajjudin, reside at the first floor of the premises. Three men posing as customers visited their shop and began inspecting the wigs.
Suddenly, one of them threatened the complainants with a country-made pistol and overpowered them. The accused confined them in a room and robbed 5-6 gunny bags of hair, Rs 30,000 along with their mobile phones, Seju P Kuruvilla, Deputy Commissioner of Police (outer), said.
Based on the technical inputs, a police team was sent to Rampur, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and call detail records of the accused were analysed, he said. During investigation, it was learnt that after using one SIM card for a few days, the accused used to change the SIM cards.
Subsequently, raids were conducted at Sain's address in Bareilly, but he was found to be absconding from his house. On August 5, police apprehended him from Rampur and recovered three mobile phones from him, the DCP said.
During interrogation, Sain disclosed that on July 25, he along with one Rahul, Rajesh and two other men came from UP in an Omni Van and remained stationed at GT Road, he said.
According to a report in The Indian Express, Rajesh Kumar was a wig trader himself and had a loan of Rs 7 lakh, which was too big for a person into wig business. He saw an opportunity when he found that Hussain had a good stock of 'weft extensions' — superior quality wigs that fetch anywhere between Rs 25,000-40,000 per wig in the market.
On July 26, the accused, along with Rahul came to Nangloi and hatched conspiracy of robbery with Kumar. As per plan, on July 27, Sain along with two men entered inside the premises of complainants' house posing as customers and executed the plan, while the other remained in a car which was parked outside the complainant's house, the officer said.
The accused disclosed that the robbed hair were kept with Kumar. Subsequently, he was arrested. He disclosed that the robbed hair is kept in Laxmi Nagar, following which a raid was conducted and 118 Kg robbed hair was recovered from Ganesh Nagar, Pandav Nagar, Delhi and from his godown in the presence of complainants, he added.
Four bags containing 118 kg of robbed hair and a country-made pistol with two live cartridges were recovered from their possession, police said.
Hussain told a national daily that they purchased the hair from Tirupati and other temples in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. "Hair is auctioned there. We buy it at a cost of around Rs 22,000 to Rs 23,000 a kilo. The hair is then treated and then sold for Rs 26,000 to Rs 28,000," he said, adding that longer the hair, higher the price.
The trader was further quoted as saying that most of the hair is sold online to foreign firms. "We sell the hair abroad. The entire business is online. If we get an order, we also make wigs. Price also varies... We have also sold hair for Rs 80,000 a kilo," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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