Serial robber held for ₹56L heist at Nalasopara wine shop

55-year-old man arrested for 56 robberies in Mumbai and surrounding areas, wanted for stealing ₹56 lakh cash and jewellery from a wine shop safe.

MUMBAI: A 55-year-old man who allegedly committed 56 robberies across Mumbai and Mira Bhayandar–Vasai Virar region was arrested on Wednesday. The accused, identified as Ramniwas Manju Gupta, was wanted by the Nalasopara police since December 23, 2023, for allegedly robbing ₹56 lakh cash and jewellery from a safe in a wine shop. According to the police, the wine shop owner Manoj Kamat had filed a complaint that his office safe was broken into by an unknown robber who fled with the cash and the jewellery of his wife and daughter.

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The police registered a case of housebreaking based on Kamat’s complaint. After scanning the area’s CCTV footage, the police identified the robber as Gupta, but when a police team went to his Kalyan residence, he fled from there and applied for anticipatory bail in the Bombay high court and secured interim protection.

On May 2, the JP Road police station in Vadodara, Gujarat caught Gupta while breaking into a house. He was arrested and when the police officers got him to Kalyan to recover the stolen booty, Gupta fled from their custody. On May 6, Gupta was caught again, this time by the Kalyan police and produced before the court. “It was then that we approached the high court with the evidence of the Gujarat police pleading to reject his pre-arrest bail plea,” said Jaywant Bajbale, deputy commissioner of police (Nalasopara).

The court then rejected the bail plea and handed his custody on Wednesday to the Nalasopara police. “So far we have been able to recover stolen jewellery and cash worth ₹25 lakh from him,” said Bajbale. “Gupta used to steal the booty and hand it over to his son-in-law who used to sell it,” he said, adding that they might also arrest Gupta’s relatives who have helped him in disposing of the stolen booty.