After 120 hrs of investigation, Delhi police find man ‘staged theft’ to ‘prove wife wrong’

The accused staged the theft with the help of his domestic help & a rag picker to tell her wife that her belief about 'wearing a sapphire ring' were unfounded.

Representational image of Delhi Police | PTI file photo

New Delhi: A man in Delhi’s Rohini area staged a theft incident to “prove his wife wrong”. The man told police he wanted to tell her wife that her belief that him “wearing a royal blue sapphire on his ring finger will bring propitious results in future” was unfounded.

The accused, Mukesh Verma, staged the theft with the help of two accomplices — his domestic help, Sunny and a rag picker, Suraj, and made calls to South Rohini police station on 16 January, alleging that Rs 8 lakh, 650 grams of gold and some keys were stolen from his car.

After nearly 120 hours of interrogation, based on “tedious questionnaire & scientific and technical evidence,” the police finally managed to get Mukesh and Sunny confess the truth. “It was revealed that Mukesh’s wife had pressured him into wearing the ring and he was against it. He wanted to prove that the theft had occurred because he wore the ring,” a senior Delhi Police officer who didn’t wish to be named told ThePrint.

The police succeeded in cracking the case on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

“The three accused have been taken into custody but FIR sections will be registered only after we seek legal opinion,” the officer said.

How the theft was staged

On 16 January, Mukesh called South Rohini police station to register a complaint about the theft.

The FIR was registered on 17 January under section 379 of the IPC (punishment for theft). Four days after the complaint, the police found Sunny’s activities, who had also kept stolen bags in Mukesh’s car, “suspicious”.

It was Sunny who then spilled the beans about how Mukesh had staged the theft and that the stolen bags were actually empty, with only some keys. Suraj, meanwhile, was paid Rs 700 by Mukesh.

The three had also kept the bags in direct view of the CCTV camera outside the house where the car was parked.

After Sunny’s confession, Mukesh told the police that apart from proving that his wife’s belief about  the blue sapphire was wrong, he also wanted to gain sympathy from his lenders so that he could delay making payments to them.