A man has been arrested for stealing luggage bags of senior citizens from railway stations and Kashmere Gate ISBT bus stand on the pretext of helping them, the Delhi police said on Thursday.

Fifty-four-year old Suraj Parkash from Ghaziabad would approach senior citizens and women, who were alone and in need of some help and disappear with their luggage and bags. He used to present himself well in order to win the trust of people.

A 56-year-old woman from Haryana’s Hisar lodged a complaint at the Kashmere Gate police station on October 18, stating that the accused offered to help her with bags at ISBT and then disappeared with everything.

The stolen bag comprised clothes, a mobile phone, some jewellery and documents, the police said.

A case was registered at the Kashmere Gate police station. During the investigation, the photos of the suspect were circulated across bus stops and railway stations, the police checked CCTV footages and spotted one suspicious individual following the complainant, the police said.

Thereafter, more footage were analysed to ascertain the suspect, and it was found that he committed similar thefts earlier also, police said.

On December 21, the accused visited Kashmere Gate bus stand again and was caught. A raid was conducted, 51 bags and 26 stolen mobile phones were recovered from his home, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

During interrogation it was disclosed that the accused, who is a B.Sc graduate from Meerut University, used to run a medical store but closed it due to losses and started committing crime around two years ago, Mr Kalsi said.

Suraj Parkash has been involved in nearly 150 thefts near ISBTs and railway stations. He also claimed that he has never been arrested earlier, the police said.

The accused never used any vehicle for any of the crimes. At home, when asked about the number of bags with him, he told his wife that he works in a ticket booking center, those bags belong to passengers and he will return them soon.

Suraj Parkash has a daughter and son who are studying in Class 10 and 12.