Woman arrested 50th time for theft

A 34-year-old woman Vanita Gaikwad was arrested for the 50th time by the Mumbai police for stealing gold and diamond jewellery worth ₹8.90 lakh from a makeup artist in Andheri (West) on Sunday.

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Amboli police also arrested three of her accomplices - Anita Shinde, 34, a Wadala resident; Amit Waghmare, 32, and Arif Shaikh, 30, both residents of RCF colony.

Atul Sanap, assistant police inspector at Amboli police station said, “Vanita Gaikwad is a habitual criminal with 50 cases of theft registered against her. I had arrested her for a similar crime in 2019, and later she has been arrested by various police stations. She manages to get bail easily, and again commits the same offence.”

Someshwar Kamthe, a senior inspector said, “At around 12pm on August 17, Gaikwad walked into a plush society in Andheri and said that she was looking to be employed as a house-help. The makeup artists who was looking for a house-help checked her Aadhar card and hired her.”

On August 18, at around 10am, she went to the house of the makeup artist with Shinde and introduced her as her cousin, who too was looking for a job. Gaikwad told the make-up artist that a flat owner from another society had called Shinde at noon and that if she could stay with her for the day and help her clean.

The make-up artist then asked Gaikwad to clean another flat of theirs. “The complainant accompanied Gaikwad and Shinde. But the complainant got a phone call and she went to the living room,” said Sanap.

While the complainant was on the call, Gaikwad came out and told her that Shinde had got a job at a society in Lokhandwala and that she would drop her to the location and come back, said Sanap.

“Gaikwad did not return. The next morning, the make-up artist opened her cupboard to find her jewellery was missing. She then approached Amboli police station and filed a complaint against the accused. Following her complaint police registered FIR under sections 381 (theft by a servant of property in possession of master), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property), 414 (assisting in the concealment of stolen property), and 34 (common intention) Indian Penal Code,” said Sanap.

“We showed her a list of habitual woman thieves and she identified Gaikwad. We then arrested both the accused,” said Kamthe.