Japanese consulate officer’s wife robbed while watching Ganpati procession

The incident occurred when the fifty-two-year-old wife, a resident of Malabar Hills, along with her husband, were walking towards Horniman Circle in south Mumbai to experience the Indian culture and watch Ganpati processions

Mumbai: The wife of a senior Japanese consulate officer in the city was targeted by a scooter-borne thief on Tuesday evening who snatched her handbag containing ₹11,000 cash, identity cards, and documents.

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The incident occurred when the fifty-two-year-old wife, a resident of Malabar Hills, along with her husband, were walking towards Horniman Circle in south Mumbai to experience the Indian culture and watch Ganpati processions.

Acting on the victim’s complaint, the Mumbai police sprang into action and traced the accused within five hours, based on clues gleaned from the CCTV cameras, and arrested him.

The accused, Mohammad Arbaaz Abdul Sattar Siddiqui, 26, works as a driver and is a resident of Samuel Street, Pydhonie.

“Both of them had visited Taj Wellington Mews at Apollo Bunder and later walked towards the Horniman Circle to see Ganpati processions around 7.45 pm when a scooter-borne thief came and pulled her handbag. The handbag contained ₹11, 000 cash, identity cards, and documents,” said a police officer.

“When the Mumbai Police came to know about it, they immediately helped her lodge a case for 392 of the IPC for robbery, and teams of local police from Zone 1 started tracing the accused through the CCTV footage,” said the police officer.

In no time, Siddiqui was picked up from the Pydhonie area. He has previous cases of thefts registered with the MRA Marg police station. “We arrested the accused in just five hours from the registration of the offence and recovered the valuables,” said the police officer.