Mumbai: The sleuths of crime branch unit 11 have arrested three people – two men and one woman – for robbing a political party worker of Rs 70,000 at Goregaon. It was revealed during the probe that the accused trio operated as a gang to rob people in the dark, taking advantage of their vulnerability. The accused trio were arrested and booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Rs 16,000 recovered from them.
According to police, on Thursday night, the complainant, a political party worker who is also the caretaker of its Goregaon office, was sitting outside the party office. Around 11.30 pm, a woman approached the complainant and asked him if he knew about any bathroom in the area. The complainant pointed her in the direction of a public toilet and she went that way. Suddenly, the woman called out for the complainant for help as she was unable to switch on the light.
Police said, when the complainant reached the toilet, there were three other men accompanying the woman, who held him by force and robbed him of Rs 70,000 in cash which was kept in his pocket and run away. The victim then approached Goregaon Police and lodged a complaint, following which a parallel probe was launched.
Based on technical evidence, police learnt about the accused being from Nalasopara area and accordingly a team was dispatched, following which the trio were arrested on Friday from Hanuman Nagar. Police said that the accused were identified as Sultana Shaikh, 23, Mithil Parmar, 24, and Sohail Mettar, 25.
Probe revealed that one of the accused worked as a driver when the complainant's political party had arranged an ambulance for COVID patients during the pandemic. At the time of his stint as a driver, the accused knew that the complainant collects cash at the end of the day and decided to target him for the next hit.
The accused were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and police made a recovery of Rs 16,000 cash, along with a motorcycle and mobile phones worth Rs 63,000. Meanwhile, a search for the fourth accused, who is on the run, is underway, said police.
