Mumbai couple held for stealing bag of 1,500 bullets from national shooter on train

According to the police, the couple confessed that they stole the bag of bullets when the complainant had gone to the washroom before getting off the train.

A 28-year-old man and his 25-year-old wife were arrested on Saturday, a day after they stole a bag containing more than 22-bore 1,500 bullets from a 48-year-old national shooter, while he was travelling from New Delhi to the city in a train.

The Bandra GRP recovered the bag of bullets from the accused, Lalit Dhingana (beside the trolley) and Jyoti. (HT Photo)

The Bandra government railway police (GRP) officers arrested the couple, identified as Lalit Dhingana and Jyoti, from their house in Antop Hill, on the basis of CCTV footage at the Bandra Terminus and their WhatsApp display pictures. According to the police, the couple confessed that they stole the bag of bullets when the complainant had gone to the washroom before getting off the train.

The complainant, Vishwajeet Dattaram Shinde, a gold medallist shooter, owns a shooting academy, Savarkar Rifle Club, in Shivaji Park. On Thursday, Shinde, a Matunga resident, went to National Rifle Association of India in Delhi, where he bought shooting equipment such as gloves, shooting vests, 30 boxes of 22-bore rifle bullets, etc.

On Thursday, while returning to Mumbai, he kept the bullets in his trolley bag, wrapped in safety packages, under his seat. On Friday, when the train reached Bandra Terminus, Shinde noticed his trolley bag was missing. “Shinde approached the Bandra GRP and a complaint was registered,” said Sunilkumar Jadhav, senior inspector, Bandra GRP. Jadhav said they scanned the CCTV footage of the station and found a couple carrying a trolley bag similar to Shinde’s. “We got the couple’s PNR number and identified them. We also got their mobile numbers, but the phones were switched off,” he said. The police found the display pictures of the couple from their numbers on WhatsApp. The pictures were circulated in and around Bandra Terminus and a taxi driver, who had dropped the couple off in Antop Hill on Friday, identified them, said Jadhav.

The police went to Antop Hill on Saturday, along with the taxi driver, and circulated the couple’s photos near the spot where they had been dropped off. A local identified the couple and the police then went to their house on Shaikh Mistry Road in Antop Hill and arrested them. They also recovered Shinde’s bag. “The couple was arrested on the charge of theft. They confessed that when Shinde went to the bathroom, they stole his bag and left the compartment before he could return,” said Jadhav.