Delhi Youths top Delhi's crime graph

Delhi's crime scene is seeing an abnormal change in the profile of criminals. Figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau show that while youths aged 18-30 years were behind 46.5% of all crime nationally, in Delhi, people in that age group committed 57% of all crime. About 12% of criminals caught in the capital were educated. And 85% to 93% were first timers, and a whopping 57% of whom were younger than 25.

Racket skills of the young

January 22, 2011: An MBA student was a part of the gang of professional armed robbers who were arrested in South Delhi. The gang also included a regional sales manager with Essar group and the third member was a postgraduate in economics and former MNC executive. They lived lavish lifestyles and needed extra money as their earnings could not finance their luxuries. They robbed their victims at gunpoint and bankrolled their expensive habits and lifestyle with the money that they stole.

January 22, 2011: Class XII student of Delhi Public School stole his neighbour's car at Alaknanda locality of South Delhi. The 18-year-old was arrested in Karol Bagh, where he hoped to sell the stolen Maruti 800. The boy's father was a general manager at BHEL and his mother was a lecturer at a polytechnic college. His elder brother was studying engineering at a reputed Delhi college.

Jan 23, 2011: Akshaya Kumar, 19, a college student was one amongst the four arrested for shooting and robbing a man. A pistol, cartridges, bikes and four mobile phones were recovered from the gang. They reportedly approached a group of professional criminals to carry out this meticulously well-planned robbery.

December 28, 2010: A handful of students were reported to be a part of a sex racket - in order to earn a quick buck - busted in Rohini, which was being run in the garb of an escort agency.

October 30, 2010: Vikas Jain, 22, a BCA (Bachelor of Computer Applications) graduate from IP University was one among a gang that was arrested in five cases of burglary amounting to more than Rs 55,000 in cash and 100gm of gold jewellery from South Delhi. The youths got involved in betting and had no recourse but to pay the money lost by taking a loan from a local money-lender at 10% monthly interest. To pay their mounting debt, they resorted to robbery and crime.

October 29, 2010: 19-year-old Rahul Gupta, craved the affluence that his friends enjoyed. He came in contact with three other conspirators after failing in Class XII, and murdered two school kids. Rahul, along with four members of a west UP gang, lured the two victims out of the city by promising them a good time. The gang had reportedly also done the same with many other students earlier.

September 25, 2010: A 21-year-old Delhi University female student was arrested for running a gang of thieves. The gang of seven robbers stole at least Rs 2 crore worth of goods, including a few cars. The gang was run by Mansi, a young B.Com student.

July 3, 2010: Police busted a racket in which engineering graduates and B. Tech students, including one from IIT Delhi, impersonated aspirants from Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, UP and Delhi at entrance exams. The coerced engineering students to write entrance exams for aspirants. They would scout for talented students willing to impersonate for money, get them to write the exam on someone else's behalf and earn Rs 4 lakh per successful candidate.

August 19, 2010: Hitesh, 19, and Shakti, 21, were arrested for allegedly duping two prospective candidates of Rs 4.17 lakh each with the false promise of admission to a prestigious DU college in North Campus. The two took the victim's certificates and marksheets and even gave them a fake receipt.

April 14, 2010: Two DU students - Phool Kumar, 23, BSc, and Shiv Kumar, 21, BA - looted cars in Alipur, and used the vehicles to smuggle premium liquor brands into Ahmedabad. They wanted easy money for a lavish lifestyle. Six months ago, Phool Kumar allegedly bought a pistol from UP and then roped in his friend to smuggle liquor from Haryana into Gujarat where alcohol is banned. The two had earlier looted three luxury cars at gunpoint.

February 28, 2010: A management graduate and a Delhi University student were two among the four involved in a high-profile sex racket run by Shiv Murti Dwivedi alias Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale (39), a self-styled godman.