Jaipur: From toys and books to LED TVs and mixer grinders, no item was too trivial for 27-year-old burglar Mangalchand Saini. Arrested by Harmada police Thursday, Saini is believed to have committed burglaries worth nearly Rs 5 lakh in the past two years.Police records show that his earlier brush with crime was limited to two FIRs in 2020, in which chargesheets were filed. Since then, he managed to stay off the radar by targeting anything he could lay his hands on—so much so that when valuables were scarce, he stole toilet cleaners.“The list of stolen items was so long that officers eventually had to pause his interrogation as the inventory kept growing,” said an investigator.DCP (West) Hanuman Prasad Meena said the police are now focusing on suspects like Saini, who evade attention by committing petty thefts—often to fund their addiction to smack and other drugs.The crackdown intensified Friday when four members of another gang were arrested for stealing water pumps from houses on the city’s outskirts. Police said the accused dismantled the pumps and sold them off to buy drugs.“This is their criminal tactic—operating in peripheral areas, stealing small items so FIRs are not filed against them,” said an official. According to police, the commissionerate has ordered officers to examine every petty case and track suspects closely, even if victims do not insist on filing complaints. “The idea is to stop them before they graduate to violent crimes or robberies,” an officer explained.In another case Friday, police arrested 20-year-old Shubham Gangwal from Galta Gate after he stole two LED TVs from a school in Ganesh Puri. He was caught before he could sell them in the market.
