In an operation similar to those seen in Bollywood movies, Mumbai police personnel donned outfits of Zomato delivery boys in order to arrest two chain-snatchers who had several chain snatching cases registered against them.
Somnath Gharge, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) from Mumbai Police Zone 12, gave information about the episode. He said that during July and August, 3 incidents at Kasturba Marg police station and 1 incident at Bangur Nagar police station of chain snatching were registered.
After this, the team of Om Totavar and Rahul Valuskar got into action. For proper identification, they went through 300 CCTV footages. During the investigation, police found that a bike, which was also used for the crime, was parked at a railway station. The DCP said the police were sure that the accused would come to take their bike back.
After that, the whole unit of Kastoorba Police donned outfits of Zomato delivery boys and waited for around 3 days around Vithalwadi and Ambivli. When one of the accused came to take their bike, he wasn’t able to flee, as the police had taken out the plug of the bike. The other accused was nabbed later, the police said. They were caught red-handed and two bikes and stolen chains were also recovered.
The DCP said they are extremely clever thieves. They used to go to Ambivli West after parking their bikes at Ambivli East, after committing the crime, to create confusion.
Even after catching them red-handed, the police had to face stiff resistance from the local Ambivli women, who were against their arrest.
The arrested have been identified as Firoz Nasir Sheikh and Jafar Yusuf Jafri. Both are residents of Vithalwadi and Ambivli respectively. They were history-sheeters and had their names registered in more than 20 cases of robbery. Both accused are in police custody.
