Less than 24 hours after they broke into a flat in the Hatkesh area of Mira Road and decamped with cash and valuables worth more than Rs. 74,000, the Kashimira police apprehended three notorious thieves from Nallasopara.
The arrests turned out to be a prize catch for the police as the trio turned out to be habitual offenders involved in a whopping 131 house break-ins committed by them in the Mira Road-Virar belt, Mumbai and Thane city.
Based on a complaint registered by Reena Mandal, a crime detection team led by API Mahendra Bhamre under the supervision of Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Hazare and ACP Vilas Sanap started scanning footage captured by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in the vicinity of the crime scene and possible getaway routes.
“One of the accused was spotted in the visuals, based on which we activated our core informer network and zeroed in on the accused who turned out to be habitual offenders involved in more than 131 house break-ins,” said Hazare.
The accused have been identified as Manoj Surendra Sharma alias Manya (28), Mushtaq Idrisi (34) and Sahil Hussain (20) all residents of Palghar district.
Experts in breaking locks, the trio moved around in a car and conducted recces to select locked homes, police said. Meanwhile, an offence under sections 454, 457 and 380 of the IPC has been registered against the accused who have been remanded to custody. Further investigations were underway.