They’re labourers by day, criminals at night

NEW DELHI: The life of the three brothers who stole Kailash Satyarthi’s Nobel on February 7 is nothing short of a Bollywood potboiler. Vaguely familiar to the plot of the movie Titli, the men— Vinod (35), Sunil (28) and Rajan Natta (25) — lived a mediocre life during the day and turned criminals by night.
While one brother worked at an export firm, the other was a construction worker and the third was a grocery vendor.In fact, Vinod had been released from jail six months ago after serving a life term of 14 years for the murder of two of his associates in 2000.
Their father, Heeralal, had shifted to a slum cluster near Aravali Apartments in Kalkaji from Gorakhpur in the early 90s to work as a mason. Vinod, then a teenager, used to accompany his father to work, but fell into bad company after his mother’s death. After his marriage, he started committing petty crimes to earn extra to impress his wife, who stays with her parents in Gorakhpur.
Vinod would target the houses to break into while working with his father and would carry out the crime with two associates at night. “He would steal cash and jewellery, as it was easier to dispose it off,” said a police officer.
He had a falling out with his partners in crime over sharing the booty and bludgeoned them with a hammer after an argument. He fled after a case of murder was registered against him at Kalkaji police station. Locals said that Rajan helped him escape when the police raided their house. He was eventually caught in 2002 and jailed for 14 years. His brothers decided to carry on his legacy while he was in jail.
Heeralal soon lost his job as none of the contractors agreed to employ him. His wife, Munni, died in 2005. After the slum cluster was razed, the family of eight shifted to Sangam Vihar.
Rajan started working as a painter in the areas around Kalkaji and CR Park. He committed petty crimes in the area and even roped in Sunil, then a juvenile, to slip into the houses. “Sunil was the only one enrolled in a school, but he dropped out while in Class VII after his mother’s death,” said a neighbour at Sangam Vihar.
After some time, Rajan managed to get a helper’s job in an export firm at Okhla during which he had to travel to the adjoining NCR cities. “He started committing robberies while returning from work along with Sunil. The brothers would target people on the highways near Noida and Faridabad and rob them at knifepoint,” said a police officer.
Though Rajan had married a girl who stayed at a camp near Okhla, she divorced him after police started conducting regular raids at their house to nab him and Sunil. The brothers were even jailed a few times for robbery, police said.
After Vinod was released from jail in August last year, he started committing petty crimes with Rajan and Sunil in south Delhi. He didn’t want to share the booty with outsiders, so kept the gang limited to his brothers.
On February 7, Sunil tipped them off about three houses he had recceed posing as a mason. Vinod was aware about the tin fencing behind Aravali Apartments as he had worked there as a labourer while it was being built. They cut open the fence using wire cutters to enter the premises and stole the Nobel.