The gang allegedly lured the street children with food and money.
A gang in Delhi who allegedly used street children to pick pockets and snatch has been arrested by the Delhi Police on Thursday. The gang of five men who have been identified as Rakesh Kumar, Golu, Ankit, Govind and Nasir operated across the city said the police.
The men would pick up children, mostly orphans from the pavement, and take them to Shahdara in east Delhi, where they were kept in a room. The children were lured with food and money investigating officers told NDTV.
The children were 'taught' how to steal money, mobile phones and snatch chains, and later placed at the metro stations and railway platforms. They were even 'trained' how to use blades and injure people if they got caught while stealing, said the police.
The police believe the gang was operating for quite some time as it was easy for them to evade the law since they were never seen in the act of snatching or stealing.
The police stumbled upon the crime trail after one child was caught with a stolen mobile phone. He led them to the room in Shahdara, where 12 children were rescued and stolen articles found. As many as 40 mobile phones and Rs 4.5 lakh in cash were found on them.
The children were today produced before the court for underage criminals in the capital and sent to a juvenile home. Senior officers told NDTV that police teams are now on the lookout for more children who have been engaging in criminal activities.
More than six crimes were committed by children in Delhi according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in December 2017. And 90 per cent of these street children were also vulnerable to drug abuse as per the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Quoting a study done by the AIIMS, the ministry told parliament last year, over 21,500 were tobacco users, nearly 9, 500 were addicted to alcohol and nearly 8000 were found to be dependent on other drugs.