New Delhi: In a shocking incident, a 49-year-old man was arrested for stealing a 50-million-year-old gastropod fossil from the International Trade Fair in Delhi. The police identified the accused, Manoj Kumar Mishra, using footage from over 100 CCTV cameras and recovered the rare artifact from his possession within hours.
Police sources said, the fossil was reported stolen on November 21 by employees of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) from their stall in the Ministry of Mines’ pavilion in Hall No. 4. IITF DCP Sumit Kumar Jha said a case was registered immediately, and a team led by Inspector Rajesh Kumar, SHO IITF, began investigating. The team, including SI Vipin Tyagi and other officers, scanned CCTV footage from the venue and surrounding areas, eventually tracing the suspect to Sector-22, Noida.
During the raid, Mishra, a Noida resident, confessed to the theft. The police recovered the gastropod fossil, weighing 1 kg and measuring 14 cm in length, 10 cm in width, and 12 cm in height, along with a trade fair entry ticket dated November 21.
Mishra was produced in court on Tuesday and has been sent to judicial custody. The stolen fossil, a major natural history artifact, was safely returned to the Geological Survey of India.
