India News | Gurugram: Property Dealer Arrested for Stealing Flower Pots Kept for G20 Event, GMDA Official Sacked

Gurugram, March 1 (PTI) A 50-year-old property dealer was arrested and a local authority official sacked on Wednesday over the theft of flower pots kept for beautification of the area for a G20 event here, officials said.

Police also recovered 10 stolen flower pots and an SUV, which was used in the crime, from the arrested accused, they said.

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An official of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has been sacked after his name was revealed by the arrested accused, GMDA said.

Gurugram police on Tuesday lodged an FIR into the theft of flower pots after a purported video clip of two men stealing them went viral on social media.

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The arrested accused, identified as Manmohan, is a resident of Gandhi Nagar area in Gurugram, police said, adding a GMDA official has also come under the scanner as the accused revealed that he had called him at the spot to pick the plants.

“The GMDA official has been identified as Nawab Singh, who is manager in the urban environment division. We will also arrest him soon. The main accused, Manmohan, was let off on police bail after he joined the investigation,” DCP (east) Virender Vij said.

Police said the suspect was traced with the help of his vehicle's registration number which was visible in the viral video. The vehicle, a Kia Carnival, which is registered in the name of the accused's wife, has also been seized, they said.

“During interrogation, the accused revealed that Nawab Singh is his friend who had called him at the spot to pick the plants,” the DCP said.

A GMDA official said that Nawab Singh was a contractual employee of the authority.

“In view of the incident (flower pots being picked up by a citizen) which has been captured on camera, the concerned staff on duty during the occurrence of the incident has been terminated from his service,” said a spokesperson of GMDA.

The complaint in the case was lodged after District Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav took cognisance of a viral tweet and asked the Gurugram police to intervene and investigate the matter.

The incident took place Monday in front of the Ambience mall on the Delhi-Gurugram expressway. The man in the video clip can also be seen putting those pots in the boot of an SUV.

A number of flower pots were set up here ahead of G20 meetings that are scheduled to take place from March 1 to 4.

An FIR was filed on the basis of a complaint by Metropolitan Green Planner, Urban Environment Division of GMDA.

“It has been observed that some passersby/thieves are stealing flower pots placed on the roadside. A video of the theft of flower pots is also going viral on Twitter, in which the registration number of the car used in the theft is HR 20 AY 0006,” the FIR said.

However, there is no record of the vehicle bearing registration number HR 20 AY 0006 on the government's 'Vahan' website. Instead, the site shows a Haryana-registered vehicle having number HR 20 AB 0006.

An FIR was registered against unidentified accused under Section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code at DLF Phase 3 police station.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)