‘Auto drivers’ nab home invasion gang ringleader from Noida

Mumbai police arrested gang leader Rizwan Ansari in Noida after a week-long operation, recovering stolen gold worth ₹11 lakh from a July 2024 burglary.

MUMBAI: A police team from Nalasopara drove autorickshaws in Noida for more than a week, to ferret out the ringleader of a gang accused of home invasion and theft. One of the burglaries had taken place in Nalasopara in July 2024.

‘Auto drivers’ nab home invasion gang ringleader from Noida

The main accused, Rizwan Ansari, was arrested in Noida on Wednesday, while his two associates had been apprehended earlier, providing valuable details that led to Ansari’s arrest. Police have also seized gold jewellery worth over ₹11 lakh, stolen during the July 2024 home invasion in Nalasopara.

Jayant Bajbale, deputy commissioner of police, Nalasopara, said the complainant, Divyesh Ramesh Mhatre, had gold jewellery worth ₹25,67 lakh stolen from his home in Nala village, Nalasopara, in July last year.

Acting on his complaint, police scanned footage from 80 CCTV cameras and noticed a suspicious autorickshaw, which belonged to one of the accused, Yogesh Ganpat Govind, a Bhiwandi resident. Police detained Govind, who confessed to the theft and said that his two associates were in Noida and Uttar Pradesh to sell the stolen goods. Soon, police arrested the second accused, Mozham Sheikh, a resident of Rajasthan, from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, using the location of his mobile phone as well as information provided by informers. However, their ringleader was still absconding.

However, Ansari was still at large. Police got in touch with his family and acquaintances in Uttar Pradesh, and by scanning the mobile phones of his family members, they traced him to Noida. Police discovered that Ansari had grown a beard and his hair to conceal his identity. They also discovered that he drove an autorickshaw to complete the camouflage.

The Nalasopara police team travelled to Noida, where they posed as autorickshaw drivers. They befriended at least 1,000 auto drivers and questioned them about Ansari for eight days. On Wednesday, they nabbed Ansari in Noida.

DCP Jayant Bajbale said the three accused were petty thieves who met in Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai, in 2020. It was here that Govind, Sheikh and Ansari became friends and even operated as a gang in prison. After serving four years in jail, Ansari was released in January 2024, a couple of months after his two associates were released.

They got together and conducted a series of burglaries, collectively notching up 21 cases across Vasai-Virar near Mumbai, Daman, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat since January 2024. In July last year, the three of them burgled Mhatre’s home in Nalasopara. Police have recovered gold jewellery, valued at ₹11.25 lakh in this case. They are also looking for the jeweller who bought stolen goods from the accused.