Auto with deity sticker, partial num plate: How cops found Brazilian woman’s lost passport

The police also arrested the 59-year-old auto driver who had allegedly fled with the bag when she was busy on her phone after getting off the vehicle.

Mumbai: By scanning footage of over 40 CCTVs between Goregaon and Kurla over the course of two days, the police were able to find the bag of a distressed 23-year-old Brazilian woman that contained valuables like her passport, other documents and iPad. The woman had forgotten her bag in an auto-rickshaw.

The Brazilian woman, Marine Leo, had approached the Dindoshi police on Wednesday night.

The police also arrested the 59-year-old auto driver who had allegedly fled with the bag when she was busy on her phone after getting off the vehicle. They said that the rickshaw driver Kanhaiyalal Pal hid the valuables under his bed, with an intention of misappropriating the same, instead of submitting the belongings at the police station.

The Brazilian woman, Marine Leo, had approached the Dindoshi police on Wednesday night. Leo, who is pursuing a master’s degree, was headed to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research at Goregaon (east).

Police inspector Chandrakant Gharge, from the Dindoshi police station, said that Leo had boarded an auto from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) and got off at the institute around 7.40 pm. But the driver drove off along with her bag when she got off the auto and was answering a phone call.

Two days later, an FIR was lodged based on her complaint. She informed the police that she was very distressed as the iPad had her education-related notes and data required for her master’s degree course.

“It was raining and dark and therefore the CCTV footage was not clear. Although we could see the Sai Baba sticker on the rear glass window of the auto-rickshaw,” said Gharge.

The police then tried to track down the auto with the help of the Sai Baba sticker in the footage of CCTVs from Goregaon to Kurla.

“We got separate numbers of the number plate from several footages. We then pieced together the entire number and secured the address of the rickshaw driver in Kalina,” said Gharge.

Leo’s stay in Mumbai was till September, but her visa was about to expire and therefore she urgently required her identification documents to get the visa renewed.

The driver, Pal, initially finned ignorance, claiming that he had not seen the bag. The police officers then searched his residence and found the bag hidden within bedsheets below his single bed.

Pal was arrested on Friday night. The iPad, passport and visa were recovered from him and handed over to Leo, said Gharge.

“We were returning from Lonavala and each one of us had a bagpack. It took us two hours from Kurla to Goregaon and I left my bag in the rickshaw. Five minutes later, I realized that my iPad and passport were missing,” said Leo.

“I am relieved to get my passport and iPad back because it would have been expensive to get a new passport and my dad had just got me this iPad which had all my notes,” said Leo, who is studying law and economics master’s degree.