Mumbai: Petty crimes are no longer a petty matter, says the Pant Nagar police that formed a special team of seven officers to nab an alleged thief who snatched the mobile phone of a 19-year-old college student at Barrister Nath Pai Road in Ghatkopar on Saturday.
An officer said, “These are usually habitual offenders, who keep venturing out looking for new targets. They usually never get caught as they keep on changing their vehicle number, name and address. But petty crimes are not small or unimportant for us.”
Bike of the accused tailed through 30 CCTV cameras
In this particular incident, complainant Dipika Gupta, a second year B.Com student, left her house for a walk at around 8:30pm. Suddenly, two bike-borne men emerged from behind, snatched her phone and fled. She rushed to the Pant Nagar police station and narrated the incident and registered a case against two unknown persons.
The police started the investigation by first looking at CCTV cameras but found it difficult as it’s a crowded spot. Eventually, though, they were spotted and identified by Gupta. Their bike was tailed through 30 CCTV cameras to understand the route, which was tracked to Govandi. With the vehicle’s photo and a blurry image of the men, they were traced to Shivaji Nagar. Following intel on their mobile number, they were traced and nabbed.
One of them was identified as Mohammad Afsal aka Bilaal Noor Alam Shaikh, 29, who confessed to the crime but didn’t reveal details about his accomplice, who is still at large.
The police said this was not Shaikh’s first attempt at theft. As per his record, he has over five cases of offences such as robbery, causing hurt with dangerous weapons and intentional insult lodged at Nehru Nagar, RCF and Shivaji Nagar police stations. The police are trying to locate the second suspect in the case.
