Duo involved in 18 house break-ins arrested

Two individuals who met in jail and became friends have been arrested for breaking into 18 houses in Dombivli and Kalyan. The police have seized stolen goods and the accused have been charged with multiple crimes.

Two people who broke into 18 houses in the last three months in Dombivli and Kalyan were arrested on Tuesday.

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According to police, Yusuf Shaikh, 38, and Naushad Alam alias Sagar, 28, first met in Taloja jail where they were lodged in different cases and became friends. After they came out on bail in March, they decided to work as partners in crime. Sagar would recce the areas in Navi Mumbai and Thane and once he located a closed house, he would call Shaikh and they would burgle it, a police officer said.

After a series of burglary cases were reported at Manpada police station in Dombivli, deputy commissioner of police Sachin Gunjal and assistant commissioner of police Sunil Kurade ordered senior police inspector Suresh Madane to form a team to nab the accused.

A police officer said, “We got CCTV footage from the buildings where the house break-ins occurred and identified the accused. Through our informants, we came to know about their activities. Both of them would visit dance bars in Mumbai after carrying out the thefts. One of them is believed to have spent around ₹50 lakh on bar girls.”

Based on a tip-off that the duo was hiding at Balyani in Titwala, the team headed by assistant police inspector Sunil Taramale laid a trap and arrested them.

“We have seized 200 grams of gold, cash, two motorcycles, two laptops, eight mobiles, five wrist watches, one camera, one speaker, one ATM card, and one helmet from them. Shaikh has already been arrested in 23 cases while Sagar has been arrested in 11 cases,” Madane said.

They were produced before a court on Wednesday which sent them to four days in police custody.

Police officers said there were also 20 cases of chain snatching registered against each of them.