Room locked, Rs 1.15 crore gone: South Delhi burglary echoes ‘kaccha baniyan’ gang

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 8, 2026 04:10 PM IST

CCTV footage from the area showed four people scaling the boundary wall to enter the locality. (Image generated using AI)

In May, Delhi Police arrested six alleged members of the ‘kaccha baniyan’ gang who had carried out two back-to-back robberies in South Delhi’s Sarvodaya Enclave.

Forty-seven days later, burglars using a strikingly similar modus operandi targeted another upscale South Delhi neighbourhood, escaping with diamond jewellery and Rs 50,000 in cash worth around Rs 1.15 crore in all.

On June 19, 54-year-old Amitabh Prasad and his wife woke up around 8 am to find themselves locked inside the bedroom of their ground-floor house in Vasant Kunj’s D Block.

“They used a set of spare keys to unlock the door. When they came out, they found to their shock that their whole house had been turned upside down,” a police officer said.

The cupboards had been ransacked, and diamond jewellery and Rs 50,000 in cash were missing. Prasad also found the living room window open.

“CCTV footage from the area showed four people scaling the boundary wall to enter the locality. They then reached the house and accessed its rear by jumping over the gate,” said the officer.

Police said CCTV footage from inside the house shows two men, both shirtless and wearing trousers. One had a saffron dupatta around his neck, while the other was wearing a white mask. The two are seen moving through adjoining rooms, searching them before briefly stopping to speak to each other.

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“They got out from a window, and stayed on the rear porch for some time before leaving,” said a police official.

D Block comprises a cluster of white and cream four-storey residential buildings with flats valued in crores of rupees. The gated locality is enclosed by boundary walls around 7-8 feet high, and is regularly patrolled by police.

Nearly two weeks after the burglary, no arrests have been made.

A senior police officer said investigators have not confirmed whether the suspects belong to the ‘kaccha baniyan’ gang, noting that they were wearing long trousers. Their identity, the officer said, can only be established after arrests are made.

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Why police suspect a familiar modus operandi

While investigators have stopped short of linking the burglary to the ‘kaccha baniyan’ gang, several aspects of the break-in mirror robberies attributed to the group in the past.

On May 1, police said six men in their undergarments burgled a house in Sarvodaya Enclave. While three members waited in Vijay Mandal park nearby, three others entered the balcony of B-250, the house of businessman Praveen Kumar. Police said CCTV footage showed them locking both bedrooms where the family was asleep.

They then snuck around the halls, opened drawers, and, within four minutes, allegedly escaped with jewellery worth Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 lakh. Praveen only realised it the next day, when he woke up to a locked door.

Last year, at least four heists were executed by the Kaccha Baniyan gang in South Delhi.

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The biggest loot, in which Rs 1.5 crore worth of jewellery was stolen from a Neb Sarai businessman’s house, still remains unsolved.