One more arrested in ₹25 lakh robbery at Cafe Mysore owner’s house

Police in Mumbai have arrested a ninth person in connection with a robbery of ₹25 lakh from Cafe Mysore owner's house. ₹4.5 lakh recovered.

MUMBAI: The police on Friday arrested the ninth person in connection with a robbery of ₹25 lakh from the house of Cafe Mysore owner, Naresh Nayak, in Sion on May 13. The police said they have recovered ₹4.5 lakh from the arrested accused, identified as Razuddinali Ansari, 50, who was produced in court and remanded to police custody till June 13.

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The mastermind of the robbery is Premchand Jaiswal, who is still at large and his recent location has been traced to West Bengal. A police team has already left to track him. Jaiswal has several cases against him in LT Marg and Santacruz police station against him.

During the interrogation, it was learnt that Ansari, a resident of Kurla West was driving the police jeep at the time of the robbery and he had played an important role in the crime, said a police officer. Soon after the robbery, Ansari managed to flee after he learnt the Sion police had learnt that a police jeep was used in the crime and they arrested Babasaheb Bhagwat, 50, a police constable serving with the Mumbai police motor vehicle (MV) department. He was picked up from Kurla West.

Through Bhagwat, Dinkar Salvi, 60, a retired police constable was apprehended from Nehru Nagar in Kurla East, said a police officer.

During interrogation, Ansari’s name cropped up and police were searching for him. We got information that Ansari had returned to his Kurla residence, so a police team visited his house and arrested him on Friday morning during the search ₹4.5 lakh was recovered from him. Thus, the police have so far recovered stolen booty of ₹34.50 lakh so far, said a police officer. The police said the accused claimed they had a tip-off that ₹17 crore had been kept at the complainant’s homes.

On May 13, six people barged into the Sion house of Naresh Nagesh Nayak, 44, the owner of Cafe Mysore based in Matunga, claiming that they were Mumbai crime branch officers, and sought to search the house. They told Nayak they had information that black money was stocked in the house which was to be used for Lok Sabha polls. They started searching the house and fled with the cash Nayak had kept for hotel transactions.

The hotelier later approached the Sion police and a case was registered. The other arrested accused identified as Sagar Redekar, 42, resident of Lower Parel, Vasant Nayak, 52, resident of Lower Parel, Shyam Gaikwad, 50, resident of Byculla, Niraj Khandagale, 34, resident of Govandi, Ajit Apraj, 50, from Goregaon and Hiren Waghela, 40, a resident of Central Mumbai. They all are in judicial custody.

Jaiswal is the main accused, Nayak was the former manager working with the hotelier and was sacked he gave the tip-off to the other accused. The case registered under IPC sections 170 (personating a public servant), 420 (cheating), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code against the fake cops. “We have already added sections of 395 (dacoity) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) in the case,” said the police officer. The police have already seized the police jeep in the case.