Vinod Kumar: easy pickingsIt took a ragpicker desperate for a joint to prove that even Rashtrapati Bhavan is not safe from petty thieves. As the police arrested Vinod Kumar alias Fauji last week, one thing became clear: that his walking away with Rs 5 crore worth of artefacts from a museum in the President's estate will go down as the worst breach of security on Raisina Hill.Getting into the President's estate was rather simple for Fauji: he had already made several trips inside, even stealing clothes being dried on the low compound walls. On November 29, the 28-year-old decided to steal yet again from the estate (he has been arrested 14 times in all for theft).After scaling the walls near Gate No. 29 he entered the abandoned 1, Willingdon Crescent, once the residence of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal. Once there, he found a door half ajar. A firm push and he found himself surrounded by rare silverware.But little did Kumar realise that some of the loot - including German forks and knives, British butter bowls, fruit bowls, kettle lamps, the Viceroy's silver ink stand and Chinese tea sets - that he hurriedly threw into his gunny bag had great antique value. Sadly, nor had the officials in charge of the antiques (including old paintings) realised that, for they had been stored in a termite-infested bungalow. "We wonder whether the caretakers ever went that way," says Karnal Singh, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch), Delhi Police.Interestingly, Kumar went back to the bungalow on three subsequent Sundays, and yet there was no one to stop his entry. Of the 450 articles worth Rs 5 crore he took away from the museum, the police have recovered about 120 items worth Rs 3.5 crore - Kumar had sold the rest for about Rs 25,000.Click here to EnlargeIt was only on December 26 that the keeper of the museum, Pramod Ganapatye, detected the theft and raised an alarm. The Delhi Police Crime Branch swung into action after President K.R. Narayanan reacted angrily to the robbery.The giveaway was a plastic bag with three American Express credit card receipts that Kumar had left behind during his last visit to the museum. Enquiries by Assistant Commisioner of Police S.S. Yadav and Assistant Sub-Inspector Hari Kishore led the police to Anna, who buys the trash collected by most ragpickers, including Kumar.When he learnt that the police were on his trail, Kumar went into hiding. The police finally picked him up from a house in Loni on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border. Kumar had by then used the money he had got from the loot to buy himself some jewellery, including gold chains and rings.Back at the President's Estate, the remaining valuables have since been shifted to the Durbar and Marble halls, the two museums inside Rashtrapati Bhavan. They are likely to remain safe there, thanks to Kumar's exploits.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Feb 2, 1998--- ENDS ---
