Fake cop with at least 75 cases against him arrested

Accused would allegedly pose as a policeman or an acquaintance and steal gold ornaments from senior citizens and morning walkers, across Northern suburbs, under the pretext of helping them. According to the police, the accused identified as Munawar alias Abdul Hamid Shaikh, a resident of Kurla, had been evading arrest for the past five years.

MUMBAI: The Malad police have arrested a 47-year-old history sheeter, who has at least 75 cases of cheating registered against him across various police stations. He would allegedly pose as a policeman or an acquaintance and steal gold ornaments from senior citizens and morning walkers, across Northern suburbs, under the pretext of helping them.

Fake cop with at least 75 cases against him arrested

According to the police, the accused identified as Munawar alias Abdul Hamid Shaikh, a resident of Kurla, had been evading arrest for the past five years. After committing the crime, he used to stay in a lodge for a month instead of going back home and avoided contacting any of his acquaintances. He also changed his mobile number frequently.

According to the Ravi Adane, senior police inspector of Malad police station, on February 25, 71-year-old Bhargav Ravrane, a resident of Rani Sati Nagar in Malad West, had registered a complaint that he had been robbed by a man posing as an acquaintance.

According to the complaint, Ravrane was taking his morning walk when a man approached him and claimed to be his acquaintance.

The man told Ravrane that some goons of a local builder were looking for a senior citizen, who looked like the complainant, to settle some score. He claimed that Ravrane might be mistaken for that person and could be attacked and robbed. The man convinced Ravrane to hand him his gold chain, worth ₹73,000, for safekeeping till they exited the locality.

“The complainant gave him his gold chain and later, when he asked for him to return it, Shaikh threatened him and walked away,” said Adane.

After registering the complaint, the police officers scanned the CCTV footages of the area and identified Shaikh. Since his name and other details were already with the police as he was a history sheeter, they contacted Shaikh’s relatives and asked for his old mobile number, as he had switched off his phone while committing the crime.

The police then contacted people from the CDR of his old number and got his new number. They traced it and found out that Shaikh was staying in a lodge in Kurla. The police raided the lodge and arrested Shaikh on Wednesday evening.

“During investigation we have found that Shaikh had at least 75 cases registered against him in several police stations. We have arrested him and recovered four gold chains, worth around ₹4 lakh, from him,” said Adane.