Case of Burglary in Holy Child Auxilium School, Vasant Vihar Solved

With the arrest of one accused namely Rahul Moirangthem, aged 19 years, presently r/o Nanak Pura, Moti Bagh, New Delhi by the team of STF, South District, a case of burglary at Holy Child Auxilium School, Vasant Vihar has been detected with the assistance of scientific and professional investigation.

        On the night intervening 12/13.2.15, an incident of burglary was reported at Holy Child Auxilium School in which burglars had stolen cash Rs. 12,500/- and a few confiscated cell phones from the rooms of Principal and Accountant.  In this regard, a case vide FIR No. 175 dated 13.2.15 u/s 457/380 IPC was registered at PS Vasant Vihar.  Being a missionary educational institution, the incident was widely published in print and electronic media. Initially, the investigation of the case was carried out by PS Vasant Vihar but later case was transferred to Special Task Force, South District on 6.4.15 and Special Investigation Team was constituted to give further impetus to investigation of the case.   

        In order to detect this case, a team consisting of 18 members including SIs  Vikas, Arvind, Prosun, Anand, ASI Balbir, HCs Mukesh, Asgar, Suresh, Umesh, Ajit, Vinod, Lalita, Consts. Naveen, Vikas, Satish, Manoj under the supervision of Inspr. Rajender Singh, I/C STF, South District was formed who made ceaseless efforts to solve the case.

During the course of investigation, the team examined the CCTV footage of the school.  The scrutiny of the footage suggested that accused persons had scaled over the wall of the school duly covered their faces in the midnight, damaged cameras installed in the premises and had stolen cash and cell phones from the room of the school Principal.  The incident apparently appeared to be a case of burglary hence investigation was taken up accordingly. There was no trace of vandalism at the scene of crime. The sacred symbols and pictures were intact and untouched.

During the course of investigation, the team of CFSL, CBI was also called at the spot which lifted 26 chance prints from different places in the room from where the property was stolen. Initially, investigation of the case was focused on criminals who had earlier committed such crimes by using same modus-operandi particularly in the school. Several police teams collected data from different parts of the Delhi of such incidents which had occurred in schools during the last five years. While investigating as per the modus-operandi, 05 criminals who had committed burglary in the schools in Delhi were arrested and 30 cases of burglary were detected. However, no clue was found during their investigation with regard to the instant case.

26 chance prints which were picked up by the CFSL team were sent to the CFSL CBI and SCRBs (State Crime Record Bureau)  for matching all the prints with those of the records available in their bureaus. However, nothing concrete could be found. The chance prints were permanently preserved in the CFSL CBI, CRO Delhi and other SCRB for further references and comparison if any suspects is arrested. 

In the meantime, a burglary case with similar modus operandi was reported from Mount Carmel School in South Campus area on 29.5.15 in which three persons had scaled over the wall and entered inside the school with the intention to commit crime.  Three persons including Rahul were apprehended by the police personnel deployed for security of the institution. In this connection, a case of attempted burglary was registered at PS South Campus, Delhi. The modus operandi adopted by the persons in the Mount Carmel School was similar to Holy Child School case, the team of STF also visited the spot and interrogated the arrested persons. The search slips of the persons who were apprehended in the Mount Carmel School case were also collected by the STF team and sent the finger prints to CFSL CBI for comparison with the chance prints picked up by the CFSL CBI on 13.02.15 from Holy Child Auxilium School.

Initially, while accused Rahul was interrogated, he did not throw any light on the incident at Holy Child Auxilium School. On 30^th June, 2015 the CFSL CBI, reported that the chance prints picked up from Holy Child Auxilium School matched with that of the thumb impression of Rahul Moirangthem arrested in the Mount Carmel School case. The chance prints were picked up from the back drawer in Principal Room of Holly Child Auxilium School from which cash and cell phones had been stolen. On receipt of this critical scientific evidence, the STF team started searching for Rahul who had been granted bail in Mount Carmel case and who had gone to Manipur. He was called for interrogation on 11.07.2015. The team confronted him with the scientific evidence and subsequently placed him under arrest on 12.07.15.

        During interrogation, accused Rahul, who is originally resident of State of Manipur and presently residing in Nanak Pura, disclosed that he along with his other associates had attempted to commit crime in Mount Carmel School and after release, he went back to Manipur.  He had studied in Mount Carmel and had compartment in Accounts Paper in 12^th class. Rahul had disclosed that he used to visit Vasant Vihar market alongwith his above named friends and also watched movie at Priya. The Holy Child School was located at the roadside in the route and after consuming liquors, he alongwith his two other friends scaled over the wall in the night intervening 12/13.02.15 and entered inside and confessed to have committed the crime. He further disclosed that he along with his two other friends who also hail from Manipur and staying in a PG in Nanak Pura area had also entered inside a govt. school namely DTEA Govt. School, Nanak Pura, a month back with the intention to commit theft but they escaped due to movement of some persons there and the incident was not reported to the Police.     

 This case was very much highlighted by media and Delhi Police has declared a reward of Rs. 50,000/- on the arrest of the accused persons. The investigation of the case is still on and efforts are being made to arrest the remaining accused persons involved in the crime.