Mumbai, August 26: In an incident at Marine Drive last week, a private vehicle driver almost lost a laptop to a gang of thieves, but he immediately discovered the theft, chased the thief and got the notebook back. Rajesh Shankar Jadhav, 23, then alerted the police and helped the cops arrest the gang trained in duping unvigilant drivers and robbed them of laptops.
The gang used to operate mainly near Churchgate railway station, Eros cinema, Mantralaya, Azad Maidan, CST railway station and Fort.
Police said Jadhav was waiting near his car at Mantralaya after dropping his employer nearby. A man approached him asking for help to collect some currency notes that had fallen off his hand. Rajesh noticed that there were a few Rs10 notes, Rs100 note and Rs500 note strewn on the road at a distance.
Rajesh suspected foul play and did not extend any help. Instead, he got back into his car to find out that a laptop was missing from the dashboard. A passerby, who had seen a guy lifting the laptop bag, tipped Rajesh saying that the thief ran towards the Akashvani building. He then chased the thief and got back the laptop.
Rajesh brought him to the Marine Drive police station, where the thief, Sudhan Ratnam Sarviya, 26, a native of Andhra Pradesh, admitted that he had put the thrown the notes on the road to dupe the driver, while his associate lifted the laptop from the car. His accomplice, Mohammad Sharif Mohammad Yusuf, 38, and a cyber cafe owner from Chembur was also later caught by the Marine Drive police.
“We have recovered two stolen laptops from Yusuf’s cyber cafe,” said assistant police inspector, Kishor Shinde of Marine Drive police station. The police are on the lookout for two more gang members, both natives of Andhra Pradesh.
–Agencies–