Mumbai: The Byculla police have arrested three people, after a long chase of almost nine days, for allegedly breaking into a locked house and stealing jewellery worth Rs11 lakh, that was saved for a marriage function.
The family residing in the house had gone to attend a marriage-related function in Dubai, between Nov 1 and 7. When they returned, they found that their house was ransacked. “The family immediately lodged a police complaint.
Swinging into action, the cops began the probe by scouring mobile phone details of the suspects. As it didn't work, the police scanned the CCTVs around the burgled house and spotted the suspects boarding a taxi near the Byculla railway station road. While they had approached the house from three different routes, they exited towards a common location.
“We unexpectedly checked CCTV footage from the Byculla railway station, where they were seen taking another taxi towards Reay Road station. From Reay Road, they took a CSMT train and after reaching there, they took another slow train to Mumbra,” said Senior Police Inspector Ashok Khot. However, their movement was missing after they reached Mumbra. Hence, the police used their images from the CCTV footage, cropped out their faces and asked their sources in Mumbra to look for them.
“We received a tip-off about one of them being in Mumbra. Later, it was known that the three had gone to Ajmer to a mosque,” added Mr Khot.
After they returned back to Mumbra, one of the suspects was nabbed on Nov 15 and subsequently two others were pinned down. The trio was identified as Yusuf Shaikh, 26, Mehruf Shaikh, 23, and Haider Shaikh, 30. All three are history-sheeters and became friends during their jail time. While Yusuf and Mehruf are involved in house-breaking cases, Haider has a record for chain and mobile snatching, and robbery.
During the investigation, it came to fore that the stolen jewellery was given to a fourth person, who was “in-charge” of selling it. Aasif Shaikh, 41, a resident of the J J Marg area, was held on Nov 24 from the Dockyard Road area.
The stolen booty was entirely recovered and handed over to the complainant, said the police, adding that the suspects were remanded to judicial custody on Nov 25.
