He started stealing to make easy money and fulfil his daily need of drugs and cigarettes and in doing so, his skills to climb walls, jump balconies and over cars to steal valuables from homes earned him the nickname "spiderman burglar".
But his run was cut short after the police finally zeroed in on him by employing a host of methods and arrested Vagees on Tuesday, the police said.
Vagees was nabbed in southeast Delhi's Tughlakabad area, within 12 hours of the last crime he committed. With his arrest, Police claimed that 12 cases of burglary have been worked out so far.
According to the police, on September 24, a burglary took place at Tughlakabad Extension where the complainant reported that in early morning, an unknown person entered her house through balcony.
But after she started shouting, the accused jumped from the first floor of the house and ran away. But by that time, the accused had stolen her three mobile phones and cash, the police said.
In the CCTV footage, the mask-wearing man was seen jumping onto the car parked outside the targeted house and then climbed the walls of the building to reach the balcony to enter the house.
In a similar manner, the man was seen exiting the house from the same balcony by jumping on the parked car.
Based on a complaint filed by the victim, a case was registered at Govindpuri police station on September 24.
"Criminals with similar modus operandi were examined and secret informers were also deployed. On the basis of body structure of accused seen in CCTV footage, police team apprehended Vagees," the police said.
During interrogation, the accused admitted his involvement in the case and three mobile phones, stolen from the complainants house, were recovered. Six other stolen mobiles were also seized, Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) said.
The accused used to enter the target house in muffled face and used to operate alone, he said.
He used to select the target one or two days before breaking into the houses and then commit the crime in the late night hours, he added.
Under the influence of bad company, Vagees became drug addict and to meet his needs and also to get easy money, he started theft and petty offences. He came out of the jail in 2017 and after that he again started indulging in crime, he said.
The accused was previously involved in 14 cases of attempt to murder, burglary, theft and snatching, he added.
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