Bag-lifter gang busted in Delhi, four arrested

A gang of professional bag-lifters who posed as cloth traders and operated in and around Delhi’s major railway stations has been busted, police said on Monday. Four men—Amit Kumar (37), Karan Kumar (27), Gaurav (33), and Punit Mahto (38)—have been arrested for allegedly stealing luggage from crowded stations while evading CCTV detection by using identical-looking bags.

The gang primarily targeted unattended black and blue bags, commonly carried by passengers, and replaced them with similar empty ones to confuse surveillance teams. According to a senior police officer, their latest theft occurred on July 3 when five bags were reported missing from coach A-1 of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra SF Express at New Delhi Railway Station.

Following a complaint received at the railway enquiry, an FIR was registered and a probe was launched. CCTV footage helped trace the suspects to a hotel in Paharganj, where three of the accused—Amit, Karan, and Gaurav, all residents of Bihar—were arrested. Punit Mahto was later apprehended from Anand Vihar Railway Station.

Investigations revealed that the gang frequently stayed at budget hotels near railway stations, pretending to be in the cloth trade. Carrying several black and blue trolley and pitthu bags, they would swap stolen luggage with dummy bags, transfer the contents, and discard the originals nearby to avoid suspicion.

“This method helped them circulate multiple times through station premises without alerting CCTV operators or hotel staff, who noticed no apparent change in the luggage,” the officer said.

Police recovered three trolley bags—two of which were confirmed as stolen—along with four pitthu bags, five handbags, two mobile phones, and Rs 47,000 in cash. Mahto, who has a criminal record spanning several states including cases under arms and narcotics laws, also led the police to a stash of suspected stolen bags.

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The gang is also believed to have operated from safe houses near the Badarpur-Faridabad border, where they kept looted goods before offloading them in grey markets.

“The accused were methodical and cautious. They regularly changed phones, SIM cards, and used false identities at hotels to avoid leaving any digital footprint,” the officer added.

Police are now working to match the recovered items with pending theft cases and to trace other members possibly linked to the racket.

(With inputs from PTI)