An exercise meant to ensure proper “security” for passengers left a Delhi Metro commuter with a bitter experience. His bag containing jewellery worth Rs.50 lakh was stolen from the baggage screening machine installed at a station here.
The CCTV cameras installed at the Chandni Chowk metro station have captured the footage of a person lifting the bag from the exit side of the machine.
The victim, 42-year-old Ravinder Soni, a resident of Yamuna Nagar in Haryana, was being frisked at the time of the incident.
Recalling the incident, Mr. Soni said on Wednesday that he had come to the Capital a day before to buy jewellery.
“Once in a while, I go to Delhi to buy jewellery as the prices are low thus helping me to fetch better margins on their sale in my hometown. Since the distance between Yamuna Nagar and Delhi is not that much and the two cities are well connected it is always a good bargain,” said Mr. Soni.
On the day of the incident, the businessman purchased the jewellery from different shops located in the Katra Nawab area in Old Delhi after which he headed towards the nearby Chandni Chowk metro station.
“I reached the station around 6 p.m. and from there I bought a token for Kashmere Gate metro station as I had to take a bus back to Haryana at the Inter-State Bus Terminal there. I was carrying two bags, a laptop bag and the other made of cloth with the jewellery I had purchased. After buying my token, I placed the bags on the conveyer belt of the machine and stepped into the door framed metal detectors to get myself frisked,” he said.
Post his frisking, when he went near the machine to collect the bags he was shocked to see that the one with the jewellery was missing. He immediately alerted the security personnel present there.
However, the person who allegedly lifted the bag, had left the metro station by then. The Kashmere Gate metro police registered a case subsequently and Mr. Soni was shown the CCTV footage where he identified his bag.
“I saw a man aged around 20 lifting it from the baggage counter and making an exit from the station,” said Mr. Soni adding that he had a hunch that he was being followed by a group of men all the way from the market to the metro station.
According to the police, they were in the process of identifying the accused with the help of the footages available to them. No arrests had been made till Wednesday evening.
