‘Spiderman’ thief caught in Kharghar police web

The Kharghar police, along with Unit III of Navi Mumbai Crime Branch, arrest the wanted ‘Spiderman’ for stealing valuables from flats in high rises at night by climbing the pipelines and sometimes by going from ducts of the building

The Kharghar police, along with Unit III of Navi Mumbai Crime Branch, have arrested the wanted ‘Spiderman’ thief as the police referred to him, for stealing valuables from flats in high rises at night by climbing the pipelines and sometimes by going from ducts of the building.

One of the four arrested was termed ‘Spiderman’ thief for his ability to climb pipelines of buildings and going from ducts. (HT FILE)

Senior police inspector, Sandeepan Shinde of Kharghar police station, said, “The accused, Saif Isa Shaikh, 19, a resident of Mumbra and a lean structured man, is a pro at climbing the pipelines and entering the ducts of buildings, getting inside the flats and doing away with valuables without making a sound. Sometimes, it would be just a mobile phone.”

The police also arrested three of his partners identified as Siraj Naem Shah, 21, Shoeb Waris Qureshi, 18, and Mohammad Umar Mohammad Yusuf Shaikh, 43, all residents of Govandi. Qureshi owned a motor bike and rode it with Shah and Saif sitting behind him. The role of Shah was to keep a watch while Saif would go climbing on the building while Qureshi would wait on his bike. After the theft, the stolen valuables were taken to Umar, who is a pro at dismantling any mobile phone in minutes and then selling off the spare parts separately.

“The phones were dismantled so as to make the stolen phone untraceable,” Shinde said.

After a few such house breaks, during investigation, police had found CCTV footage of the three accused from various locations, while Umar was arrested based on the statement of the three.

“Using the footage and data dump of the accused, the trio was nabbed from Govandi,” senior police inspector, Shatrughn Mali from Unit III, Crime Branch, said.

While in police custody, two of the four accused were found to be Covid positive and hence they were shifted to a hospital and other two to Taloja jail.

“As of now, we have solved seven house break cases wherein they were involved. After the duo recovers, we would take them into police custody to investigate further,” Shinde added.