Three weeks, 500 hours of CCTV footage, and a chase stretching across two states. That’s what it took for Itanagar Police to finally nail the three men who walked into a busy market shop in broad daylight and walked out richer by ₹13 lakh.
A Robbery Hidden in Plain Sight
It was an ordinary Sunday morning on June 22 when two men strolled into Neelam Traders at Gandhi Market, Itanagar — just before noon, around 11:19 AM. They came in with a story. Said they’d lost something and wanted to check CCTV footage. Shop staff had no reason to suspect anything. Then one of them reached into a file cover and pulled out a knife. The cashier was threatened, the cash snatched, and within minutes both men were gone. A third accomplice was already waiting outside as lookout. The whole thing was caught on CCTV — but catching the men behind it would be a very different matter.
The Chase That Crossed State Lines
These were not impulsive criminals. They had changed clothes before the robbery, deliberately dodged CCTV-covered routes, and vanished into the chaos of the city. Making things worse, several Smart City CCTV cameras along the suspected escape routes were non-functional. The trail went cold fast. The trio fled toward Seppa, bouncing between East Kameng district, Assam, and other corners of Arunachal Pradesh, constantly shifting locations to stay ahead of investigators.
500 Hours of Footage and a Team That Didn’t Quit
Itanagar SP Jummar Basar constituted a dedicated Special Investigation Team under the SDPO Itanagar and the Officer-in-Charge of Itanagar Police Station. The team, which included SI Samuel Ngupok and several constables, ground through over 500 hours of private CCTV footage, ran mobile phone tracking, gathered intelligence, and conducted extensive field verification. It was painstaking, unglamorous work — but it paid off.
Spending Fast, Caught Faster
The three accused — Prem Rebe, Gungung Tagang, and Yubi Kamchi — were identified. Gungung Tagang and Yubi Kamchi were nabbed in Seppa with the help of local police. But Prem Rebe, the man who wielded the knife, kept slipping away, moving between resorts and temporary stays, spending the stolen money freely. He bought a four-wheeler, two-wheelers, mobile phones. Didn’t slow him down enough. Police caught him too — also in Seppa — after nearly three weeks of relentless tracking. Several purchased assets have since been recovered, and a bank account has been frozen.
Capital Police acknowledged the crucial support from East Kameng Police and Naharlagun Police Station in bringing the operation home.
Three men thought a crowded market, a file cover, and a change of clothes were enough to disappear. They were wrong.
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