New Delhi/Raipur: Meticulous planning, fine coordination by two bright IPS officers - DCP South Delhi, Rajesh Deo and Bilaspur SP Santosh Singh - have helped in cracking one of the biggest heist of the country, worth crores of rupees, from a prominent jewellery shop in New Delhi. The officers leveraged technology to track the movement of criminals, ascertain their criminal antecedents and track their accomplices.  

The criminals had decamped with jewellery worth about Rs 20 crore and Rs 5 lakh cash from Umrao Singh Jewellers in busy Bhogal area of South Delhi by cutting open wall of the shop in a 18-hour operation. 

Bilaspur SP Santosh Singh and DCP South Delhi Rajesh Deo used electronic surveillance that led to getting important leads of the case and ultimately nabbing the suspected culprits and recovery of around 18.5 kg of gold and diamond ornaments. 

The arrested persons have been identified as Lokesh Srivas and Shiva Chandravanshi. However, the other suspect, Srivas managed to escape. 

Deo said Srivas along with his three accomplishes had cut the wall of the shop to reach its locker. He said that a crucial lead emerged after an examination of CCTV footage, which showed a man with a backpack entering the building next to the burgled shop on the night of September 24. This combination of high-tech tools enabled the police to apprehend the culprits within days.

He said Srivas, after committing the crime in the jewellery in New Delhi had escaped to Madhya Pradesh by a bus.

The breakthrough came when Chhattisgarh police also shared an information with their Delhi counterpart that Lokesh Shrivas, a notorious criminal after his arrest, had casually mentioned about a major robbery committed by his associate in Delhi. 

Earlier, a joint team of anti-crime, cyber unit and civil line police station in Bilaspur district in Chhattisgarh carried out raids while they were probing a series of thefts in Bilaspur city, Bilaspur SP Santosh Singh said.

Following a tip-off about Lokesh Shrivas' presence in Kawardha town in Kabirdham district, a joint team of Bilaspur police led by SP Santosh Singh conducted a raid. Both Lokesh Shrivas and Shiva Chandravanshi were arrested along with ornaments. However, Shrivas managed to escape. 

Bilaspur SP said Lokesh Shrivas is a history-sheeter and he had been committing crime since 2006. He initially used to target small jewellery shops in his hometown of Kabirdham, Chhattisgarh, before widening his operations to states like Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Delhi.