A 29-year-old history-sheeter, wanted in 20 plus cases of house-breaking and trespassing (HBT), has been arrested by the Pant Nagar police after a month-long chase from Mumbai to Sangli.
The matter first surfaced on September 10, when a man named Jigar Kothari, a chartered accountant by profession, approached the police alleging an HBT case. According to Kothari, an unknown person broke open his door and stole valuables worth Rs. 6 lakhs. The complainant’s building is an old building, which is all set to go under redevelopment, hence there was no evidence of any entering the house as alleged by the complainant.
A breakthrough was a CCTV camera located at least 30 to 40 feet away from the building. “It was our luck that the CCTV camera had slightly captured the complainant’s building gate. Only 1/3rd of the gate, but after weeks of scrutiny, we noticed a man entering the building gate and exiting exactly 15 minutes later,” said PSI Sagar Khondre, the investigating officer.
A team was made by senior police inspector Ravidatta Sawant of Pant Nagar, led by Khondre, to start looking for the suspect. The team started following the routes used by the suspect, starting from the gate of Kothari’s building, located at 90 feet road in Ghatkopar East. After looking at 30 CCTV cameras, they noticed the suspect sitting inside a car, going towards Vashi. The vehicle number was registered under a man’s name based in Miraj, Sangli. CCTVs and one-to-one inquiries with the toll naka personnel at Vashi, Khalapur, Talegoan and Khed Shivapur toll naka, the vehicle was seen going towards Sangli. A team was immediately deployed to Sangli for further investigation.
HBT offences
When checked by the local police in Sangli, the man’s name had several criminal cases related to HBT offences. With their assistance, a trap was set up outside his house, which was located between a huge farmland on the outskirts of Sangli, said the police.
“The accused, Lokesh Raosaheb Sutar, is what we call a HBT mastermind. He is skilled, with a background in carpentry. We did a background check on him and some videos of him while breaking into houses. All he carries is a small screwdriver, which he uses to break doors, lockers, safes, cupboards, etc. He does not plan or scheme, he just breaks into houses and does not check for CCTV cameras or anything. After he is done with one HBT, he goes offline. He carries a dongle net service, which he uses everywhere – outside and at his house. Interestingly, when we were laying traps for him, we noticed his house – has emergency exits and all exits have CCTV cameras. So, if we enter from the east, he would run away from the south side,” explained Khondre.
After observing Sutar for at least 5-6 six days, police tied up some locals to assist them to make sure Sutar did not escape. The Pant Nagar team failed to get local police’s assistance as the latter were busy with Ganpati bandobast, they said. After all possible preparations, police asked the locals to cover the three exits, and at around midnight last week, police entered his house and arrested Sutar.
Sutar confesses to committing similar crimes
During the interrogation, Sutar confessed to committing similar crimes since 2013 and told the cops that he might have broken into at least 35 houses in recent times. However, as per the crime record, there are more than 20 cases registered in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The cops added that he is a skilled master in HBT offences, and as to not get caught, Sutar had even asked his parents to turn off his mobile data and use dongle WiFi instead to surf the internet and make calls.
