MUMBAI: Two motorcycle-borne mobile thieves were caught after the Andheri Police scanned at least 150 CCTVs between Marol, Saki Naka, Ghatkopar and airport — the route they had taken to speed away after stealing an iPhone worth Rs 40,000 belonging to 31-year-old Swapna Sawant, who was travelling in an auto-rickshaw in the wee hours of January 23.
The incident occurred at around 4am on Cardinal Gracious Road in Andheri (East) when Sawant was heading back home. The police recovered the stolen mobile from the duo —Asif Shaikh (22) and Ashraf Inamdar (21) — eight days after they committed the offence.
A police officer said the duo was arrested after 150 CCTV cameras and a vehicle registration number of a person who spoke with the two robbers at Marol helped the investigation team to nab the accused. “The police team noticed that the two after robbing travelled for more than three-and-a-half hours from Marol to Saki Naka to Pant Nagar to Marol to airport and back to Marol before they stopped their motorcycle to speak with a biker which helped the cop to zero on them,” said a police officer of the Andheri police station.
Based on the complaint, DCP Maheshwar Reddy supervised the team — Andheri police senior inspector Santaji Ghorpade, assistant inspector Hanmant Shirsagar and detection staff — and inspected the spot from where the mobile was stolen. “The team first scanned the CCTV grabs from the spot of the incident in which the duo was captured speeding away in a motorcycle. After eight days of working on the three-and-a-half hours of CCTV grabs, we noticed the duo had stopped at one location in Marol to speak with a biker. This was a lead which helped us to zero on the accused,” said the police.
