Police track down mobile thieves using private CCTV footages

Mumbai: Footage from a CCTV camera installed by a shopkeeper helped Bandra police nab two men, who stole a mobile handset from a pedestrian at Bandstand, and somehow managed to evade the network of other CCTV cameras in the vicinity

Mumbai: Footage from a CCTV camera installed by a shopkeeper helped Bandra police nab two men, who stole a mobile handset from a pedestrian at Bandstand, and somehow managed to evade the network of other CCTV cameras in the vicinity.

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The police have arrested the duo, identified as Sohel Nizam Qureshi (19) and Mohammed Moin Yameen Qureshi (22), and recovered two stolen items from them: the mobile phone and a superbike that was used to commit the crime.

The duo had stolen a phone worth ₹5,000 on January 29 from a pedestrian, who was talking on the phone while walking at Bandstand. While investigating the case, the police came to a dead end as both of them had abruptly become untraceable from the CCTV network. Despite looking at footage, from all possible exits over the next few days, the police were unable to spot the two or the bright yellow superbike.

“After this, the team under the supervision of police inspector (crime) Sagar Nikam started looking for the footages from private CCTV cameras installed at shops in the area from where the two accused had disappeared. After going through the footages of over 20 private CCTV cameras, we were able to spot the bike in front of a shop. The two of them had stopped at a momos stall outside the shop,” said Rajesh Devare, senior inspector of Bandra police.

From the footage, we also identified the two accused, said detection officer Vijay Achrekar. His team tracked the duo to Shivaji Nagar where both of them reside. They were nabbed on Sunday and are presently in judicial custody.

During further inquiry, it was discovered that both Sohel and Moin had several theft and robbery cases registered against them at different police stations. Sohel has three such past cases, whereas Moin has 10 cases registered against him.