In an interesting crackdown on a jewel thief, the Delhi Police’s Indira Gandhi International Airport team has ended the in-flight heist with the arrest of a man involved in the crime.

A police official on Monday said the man had been allegedly committing thefts since 2005, and mostly targeted elderly female passengers.

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The police have also nabbed the jeweler, to whom the accused would sell the stolen jewellery, the police said.

The man has been identified as Rajesh Kapoor, who is a resident of Delhi’s Paharganj, while the receiver of the stolen jewels has been identified as Sharad Jain.

The accused used to commit theft of valuable items and cash in the aircrafts, targeting elderly females carrying handbags, DCP IGI Airport, Usha Rangnani said.

It was revealed that the accused initially operated in the Railways, before he started committing thefts in the aircraft.

Talking of the past crimes, he was found to be involved in eleven similar cases, the police official added.

The police took up the probe on two recent FIRs, one in which complainant who is a resident of USA, alleged that in February this year he had travelled from Amritsar to IGI Airport, in an Air India flight and during his travel, his jewellery Rs 20 lakhs was stolen from his cabin bag.

Similarly, another complaint said that on April 11, the complainant had travelled from Hyderabad to IGI Airport in an Air India flight.

During this journey, her jewelry items worth Rs 7 lakh, kept in a handbag, were stolen by someone.

Accordingly police registered a case and took up the probe, and footage of CCTV cameras at the New Delhi, Amritsar and Hyderabad airports was analyzed with the help of Air India officials.

After the entire process, one suspect was flagged, as he was visible in both the flights where thefts were reported.

After technical analysis and on the basis of his call records, it was found that the suspect lives in Paharganj.

A raid party was formed and sent to the area concerned and later the person was zeroed down, and apprehended.

On sustained interrogation, he confessed his guilt in both the cases and several other cases, further disclosing that he used to commit theft of jewelry & other valuables in aircrafts.

A large number of gold-like and silver-like jewelry items were recovered from his accommodation, the police said.

The man also disclosed about the jeweller, from whom he took cash in return for the stolen items, and he added that the major part of the money made from stolen items was spent on gambling.

Approximately 56 gram of melted gold like metal and some small pieces of diamond like items were recovered from the receiver’s jewellery shop.

Apart from this, accused has also accepted stealing valuables from female passengers across several airlines at various Airports in the country including Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Bombay and Amritsar, the DCP

He used to fly booking tickets on his deceased brother’s credentials to evade detection.

Surprisingly, to commit thefts, the accused has travelled for more than 110 days in the past one year taking at least 200 flights, the police official added.