A group of 10 to 12-year-olds, all dressed in swanky new clothes, were a regular feature at weddings taking place in the Alambagh and Krishna Nagar localities in the state capital.
No one ever questioned their presence at the functions since they all seemed to belong to well-off families. On Wednesday night, the boys were picked up for questioning as a routine exercise. The boys, unable to understand the situation, confessed to having stolen Rs 1.5 lakhs from a wedding they had attended the same evening.
As they narrated their story, the police was shocked to learn that during the past few months the boys had stolen jewellery and cash worth Rs 6-7 lakhs from various weddings. The boys could recollect 17 incidents of thefts committed by them. “Sumit, 10, his brother Amit, 9, and friend Sonu, 11, would wait outside a wedding venue and then quietly sneak in with the marriage procession. Their elder brother Lalla, 16, would work as a waiter that allowed him free access inside and outside the venue. He would select the target and then inform his younger brothers who would quietly steal cash and jewellery. They carried blades with which they would cut open purses and bags containing mobile phones, cash and jewellery. No one ever suspected the boys since they were always well-dressed and well-behaved at the venue,” said a police official on Thursday.
The father of the boys, a fourth class employee, has been absconding after the arrest of the children. The official further said that the boys showed no remorse over being caught and neither did they seem repentant about their deeds.
“They explained their modus operandi to us with clinical precision and it is this that makes us apprehensive that the boys are master thieves in the making,” the official added.