NEW DELHI: A debt-ridden school teacher from Haryana masterminded the Paharganj jewellery shop burglary in which thieves cleverly dug their way in from a hotel room on the first floor and subsequently through the wall of an adjacent shop to make off with the booty.

The crime branch has cracked the case after carrying out extensive investigations for one-and-a-half months. Rajender Singh Dagi (45) and Abhimanyu (19) are in police net. Sonu, the third man in the gang, is at large.

"We got a tip-off that the gang involved in the burglary was hiding in Jhajjar, Haryana. This information was developed. A team led by DCP Kumar Gyanesh carried a raid at their house on Sunday and apprehended them. Gold jewellery worth Rs 2 lakh has been recovered along with housebreaking implements including a gas cutter and drilling machine," additional commissioner of police, crime, Ashok Chand, said.

The duo was put through sustained interrogation. Dagi then revealed that he took up crime to pay off his debts. A film buff, Dagi roped in Sonu and Abhimanyu to implement his ideas borrowed from movie scripts. The trio first did a recce of places which had hotel rooms on top of a jewellery store. They identified two such set-ups-one each in Karol Bagh and Paharganj.

"They first booked the appropriate room at Hotel Florence, Karol Bagh, for three days. This room was above a jewellery shop. They tried cutting a hole in the floor of the room to gain entry into the shop but their efforts went in vain as a beam of the shop's ceiling obstructed their entry. They wanted to stay on but the hotel had booked other customers and so they left quietly," said Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner, crime branch.

This took place in the first week of March. The gang regrouped and launched its next operation.

On March 15, the trio arrived at Hotel Hari Piorko. Initially, they were not given the rooms they wanted, so they checked into another hotel and returned on March 17. One of the three pretended to be a patient and the group booked rooms-numbers 117 and 118-on the first floor facing the road citing his medical condition for nine days.

Once in, they moved in gas cylinders pretending these were oxygen cylinders meant for the patient. The gang dug the floor, mostly using screwdrivers to minimize noise. They used drills with the TV on and told the housekeeping to stay away.

"They had reached the closed shop located under the room on Saturday but waited for another day to strike as their targeted shop would be closed only on Monday. They drilled their way into the jewellery shop on Sunday night, gathered what cash and ornaments they could find and began to cut open the safe. However, there was a mild explosion, and so they aborted the attempt and left. They used ropes to climb their way up to their room and checked out," DCP Gyanesh said.

As they wore gloves all the time, there were no fingerprints. Police got their first clues from the Karol Bagh failed heist.