Three steal 127 mobile phones from Dombivli shop; One arrested

Thane police arrested a 22-year-old man on Thursday, and are on the lookout for two more accused for allegedly stealing 127 mobile phones, a laptop, chargers, earphones,

Thane police arrested a 22-year-old man on Thursday, and are on the lookout for two more accused for allegedly stealing 127 mobile phones, a laptop, chargers, earphones, and other valuables collectively worth ₹16.29 lakh from a shop in Dombivli.

The accused, Mohammad Noor Hussain Ismam Shaikh, and his accomplices are allegedly involved in several house break-ins and theft cases in Dombivli, Kalwa, Rabale and Mumbra. The police are on the lookout for the other two accused.

The accused stole high-end mobile phones from the shop on September 25.

The case was registered with the Vishnu Nagar police station, while the crime branch unit 3 was also conducting a parallel investigation.

“We checked the CCTV footage from the area where the theft took place and also got technical support to trace the accused. We learned that there were three accused, all residents of slums near Mafatlal Company compound near Kalwa. We searched the area but they managed to escape before we reached Kalwa,” said an officer from unit 3.

The police traced the movements of the accused through their mobile phone locations and other technical methods. They got information from a police informer in the area that the loot was hidden in the homes of the accused.

“We raided the homes of two of the suspects and found 90% of the stolen phones. We recovered 125 mobile phones, one laptop, 51 chargers, 30 earphones, one hard disk and one WiFi dongle. The total loot was worth ₹16.97 lakh,” said the officer.

The police got a tip-off that one of the accused would be visiting his home in Kalwa on October 17. “We laid a trap and caught Shaikh, who is originally from West Bengal. He confessed to the crime. He had two more accomplices, whose whereabouts we are tracing,” added the officer.