40-year-old caught stealing, Mumbai police arrest him for 64th time

Fifteen years, 64 arrests and dozens of people conned — 40-year-old Ramesh Jaiswal has made stealing, and getting arrested, a habit

Fifteen years, 64 arrests and dozens of people conned — 40-year-old Ramesh Jaiswal has made stealing, and getting arrested, a habit. On Saturday, the Vanrai police arrested Jaiswal for the 64th time since 2003, after he stole a gold chain from a senior citizen at Goregaon (East) on September 15.

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Around 2pm that day, Jaiswal started talking to 61-year-old Nilesh Ghag, who was standing near a bus stop outside the railway station. Jaiswal introduced himself as one, Narayan Patil, and engaged Ghag in a conversation with the help of two of his aides. He asked Ghag to remove his gold chain, saying he wanted to take a look. Before Ghag realised what was going on, the three men fled the spot.

Ghag then filed a case at the Vanrai police station.

On the same day, Jaiswal also stole a gold chain and gold ring, worth ₹80,000 from 54-year-old Vivek Dhuri outside the Borivli railway station.

These two cases were Jaiswal’s undoing — at least for now.

He was arrested after Manik Patil, a sub-inspector at the Kasturba Marg police station, who had earlier seen his photograph, took Jaiswal into custody. His custodial interrogation revealed he had similar cases registered at the Dindoshi and Vanrai police stations too.

“When Ghag came to us with his complaint, we suspected Jaiswal was behind it and showed Ghag a photo of Jaiswal. Ghag identified him,” said another police official from the Vanrai station. The Dindoshi police also said Jaiswal had a case against him after he stole a gold chain from a 55-year-old man in Malad (East).

“Jaiswal is a hardened criminal, and getting information out of him is difficult,” said the senior officer from the Vanrai police station. “He keeps changing his address, making it difficult to even arrest him.”

Hindustan Times visited the address Jaiswal gave as his to the police — a room in Chembur’s Mahul village — but it turned out to be someone else’s home. Jaiswal, a Class 4 dropout, also claimed he is married and has a daughter.