Upset over being sacked from his job, a 34-year-old driver, with his friend’s help, sought revenge on his former employer by getting his house burgled. The police have arrested both the accused and recovered most of the stolen valuables, amounting to over Rs 54 lakh, from their possession.
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According to the Juhu police, the complainant, a senior citizen, stays alone in his Juhu residence, while his wife and sons stay abroad. The victim had on June 16 registered a complaint with the police, saying that an unknown person had entered his house when he had stepped out to buy fruits and stolen cash and jewellery worth Rs 54.14 lakh.
The police found their investigation initially impeded by the fact that there are no CCTV cameras in the building. Additionally, there were no signs of forced entry into the house, but as the complainant stays alone and no one else has a key to the house, this added to the mystery.
“We started scanning footage from CCTV cameras around the building, till we spotted a suspect coming from the direction of the building and getting into an autorickshaw. We tracked his movements to the Andheri railway station through footage from nearly 100 cameras along the route,” said senior police inspector Ajay Vartak, Juhu police station.
At the station, the suspect met another man and the police obtained stills of both the person's faces. They were shown to the complainant, who identified the second man as Satish Shigvan (34), who used to work for him as a driver till recently.
Based on the information provided by the complainant, the police picked up Shigvan from his residence in Vile Parle. In his questioning, he allegedly confessed to having hatched the plot to get back at his employer.
“Shigvan enlisted the aid of his friend, Ankush Mode (34), a security guard by profession, and gave him a detailed idea of the building’s layout and security. He also provided a duplicate key to the complainant’s house that he had surreptitiously made when he was working for the complainant. Mode then spent several days reconnoitring the place before he committed the offence,” an officer with the Juhu police station said.
Based on Shigvan’s confession, Mode was picked up from his residence in Nallasopara and both of them were placed under arrest. They were charged with burglary under the Indian Penal Code and produced in court, after which they were remanded in police custody till June 28. The police have recovered almost all of the stolen valuables from their possession.
“The fact that Shigvan had a duplicate key made before he was even sacked from his job is suspicious by itself. We are finding out whether he has been involved in similar crimes in the past,” Vartak said.
