KOLKATA: Bidhannagar Police on Monday got custody of a high-flying thief, who used to move in sedans and dress up in corporate formals while committing some 1,200 odd burglaries across 14 states over 25 years, in connection with a two-year-old burglary at Sourav Abasan in Salt Lake.Police said Nadeem Qureshi (45) owns properties worth crores in Mumbai and Pune and his teenaged children study in reputable schools.

Ghaziabad police brought him to Bengal from Tihar jail."He is wanted in burglary cases across the country.

His modus operandi was unique and that made him leave crime scenes with ease.

We had first traced him in 2021 after he had committed a robbery worth Rs 12 lakhs at two flats at Sourav Abasan.

We had tracked him till Kona Expressway but then we lost his trail," said a senior officer of Bidhannagar City Police.The officers finally came to know that he was arrested by Rajasthan Police and went there to interrogate him when his role was clearly established with the crime.

"However, he was then shifted to Tihar jail after being convicted in a burglary case in Ghaziabad.

He has been lodged there since 2021.

We had placed a production remand before the jail authorities who finally allowed our prayer last week and Ghaziabad police brought him to Bengal.

A Salt Lake court sent him to seven-day police custody on Monday," said the officer.A Class V dropout, Qureshi had forayed into the world of crime by stealing cattle in his native village in Ghaziabad.

At the age of 17, he had already committed multiple burglaries.

Over the years, he has committed burglaries in Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Odisha and other states.

In Bengal, similar crimes were committed in 2021 at Narayanpur and Baguiati.

Cops are now tracing Qureshi's connections here."He moved around in formal attire and entered less-guarded housing complexes or stand-alone buildings in chauffeur-driven cars and used to take elevators till the top of a building.

From there, he used to walk down the stairs to check out locked homes.

He used to target those that were not locked for long.

He used to steal only cash and gold so that the stolen booty couldn't be traced," said a senior police officer.So far, he has been arrested at least eight times and is a proclaimed offender in at last 23 cases.He had even tutored a team called "Nadeem gang" who used to function in similar fashion.