The Worli police arrested a woman for allegedly robbing a 74-year-old woman at knife point after entering her house under the pretext of carrying out vaccination drive for senior citizen. The accused Dipali Mhatre, 39 accessed entry posing as civic staff and looted the woman at knife point of Rs 3.10 lakh. Intrestingly Mhatre is resident of same building as that of the victim.
The police were looking for the culprit for over 10 days but were unable to make any headway as no CCTV camera had captured the accused neither the victim could describe her looks as she was wearing a mask. The victim just told that the woman who robbed her was healthy and had tattoos on her her hand.
Police zeroed in on Mhatre after she started taking interest in the case and making enquiries about the progress. There is a tattoo on Mhatre's hand and she was healthy, matching the description of accused, based on suspicion we took her into custody. Soon after she gave her confession and Mhatre was arrested, said a police officials on the request of anonymity.
She was produced before the court on Monday which remanded her two days of police custody, the police have also recovered stolen booty from her. The police are investigating what transpired the woman to commit robbery.
The incident took place on May 5, when the victim were alone with her 9-year-old grandson. At around 12 noon, an unidentified woman posing as civic officials asked the victim whether she had received COVID vaccine. Under the pretext of carrying out vaccination drive for elderly the accused woman gained entry. She asked for a glass of water and as the victim turned towards kitchen the accused took out knife and robbed her of cash and jewellery worth ₹ 3.10 lakh. The accused before escaping tied and gagged both of them.
The victim somehow managed to reach the window and shouted for help, a passerby who noticed the screams then came for rescue. Soon after the incident was reported, the Worli police registered an offence of robbery (392), wrongful confinement (342) and criminal intimidation (506(2)) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and launched a hunt for her .
