‘High-flying’ bandit in police net after stealing jewellery on board scores of flights
Rajesh would either tail his victims discreetly or sneakily gather information from their baggage declaration slips to learn more about the valuables they carried
Last year, he was the jetsetter of theft, clocking in 200 flights and racking up thousands of kilometres across the country for over 100 days.
But this wasn't your ordinary travel itinerary — he was on a mission to steal valuables from unsuspecting passengers in 2023.
The Delhi Police cracked this airborne crime spree when a woman flying from Hyderabad to Delhi reported last month that her jewellery worth ₹7 lakh had vanished from her handbag. Another traveller from the US chimed in, claiming his valuables worth ₹20 lakh had mysteriously vanished from his cabin bag.
Cops zero in
After scanning countless hours of airport footage, the cops zeroed in on their culprit — Rajesh Kapoor.
Caught in the act on CCTV footage from airports in Delhi, Hyderabad, and Amritsar, Rajesh Kapoor was nabbed in Delhi's Paharganj.
According to Deputy Commissioner Usha Rangrani, Kapoor had a knack for targeting passengers with connecting flights.
Take, for instance, the woman from Hyderabad bound for Delhi, set to catch her next flight to the US. Or Varjinderjit Singh, heading to Frankfurt via Delhi from Amritsar.
Modus operandi
Rajesh Kapoor's modus operandi? Blend in, observe, and strike when the time was ripe.
According to the senior officer, the culprit targeted elderly and female passengers. He used to do this after carefully observing their actions at the airport.
Rajesh would either tail them discreetly or sneakily gather information from their baggage declaration slips to learn more about the valuables they carried.
Double life
Authorities pointed out that he primarily engaged with his victims near the boarding gate. This he would do after having first observed their behaviour from a distance.
But Kapoor wasn't just a one-trick thief; he had a guest house business, 'Ricky Deluxe', near the New Delhi Railway Station.
Living on the third floor while running a money exchange and mobile repair shop, Kapoor was leading a double life of crime.
The police discovered a a huge trove of stolen jewellery in his Paharganj home, along with a confession that he'd offloaded some to a jeweller named Sharad Jain in Karol Bagh.
