Woman who stole from jewellery shops in city posing as customer held from Ahmedabad

The team checked the CCTV footage from the shop to find that the accused seemed to have flicked the necklace by diverting the attention of the person attending to her as she was looking at eight to ten necklaces displayed in front of her

Mumbai: A woman who would steal from big jewellery stores posing as a customer dressed in fine saris and jewellery was arrested by Oshiwara police earlier this week from Ahmedabad.

Woman who stole from jewellery shops in city posing as customer held from Ahmedabad

The accused, identified as Poonamben Rangani, is a resident of Ahmedabad. During her visit to the city last month, she was accused of having stolen ₹1.5 lakh worth of necklaces from MK Jewellers in Lokhandwala market, Andheri West on September 18. The necklace was later recovered from her by the police.

During the last month’s visit, she also allegedly stole from another store in Kandivali.

On the instructions of the assistant commissioner of police for Oshiwara division Suryakant Bangar, senior inspector Mohan Patil formed a team headed by assistant police inspector Sandeep Patil to look for the woman. The team checked the CCTV footage from the shop to find that the accused seemed to have flicked the necklace by diverting the attention of the person attending to her as she was looking at eight to ten necklaces displayed in front of her.

The woman could be seen taking an auto rickshaw outside the shop. “On enquiring with the auto driver, we learnt she was joined by a man on the next signal. The driver also told us he dropped them in a lodge in Vakola,” said Patil.

The police then took the details of the woman from the copy of the Aadhar card she had given to the lodge where she and her husband had stayed for a couple of days. Police also learnt from the lodge staff that the couple had taken a bus from Borivali to go back to Ahmedabad.

The woman was apprehended from her home earlier this week. After spending a couple of days in police custody, she was remanded into judicial custody on Saturday. Many years ago, she was arrested by Mumbai police for the same thing. She has more than fifteen theft cases against her in different police stations across Gujarat.