Man steps in hospital to visit son, steps out with laptops

MUMBAI: A 49-year-old man, who had entered Sion Hospital to visit his 16-year-old hospitalised son, allegedly left the premises with two stolen laptops and a hard

MUMBAI: A 49-year-old man, who had entered Sion Hospital to visit his 16-year-old hospitalised son, allegedly left the premises with two stolen laptops and a hard disc on July 21.

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He was arrested on July 25 after the CCTV footage showed him committing the crime and leaving a laptop bag near the hospital without realising that it had ₹8,000 cash in it.

A Dharavi resident, the accused has been identified as Abdu Kadir alias Badsha Peer alias Hamza Shaikh, whose son was admitted into the hospital after he sustained injuries post a brawl in Dharavi.

“Shaikh had come to the hospital to visit his son and while leaving he got his hands on two laptops and a hard disc from two different cars parked in the hospital premises. These valuables belonged to a doctor and a patient’s attendant,” said a police official.

The accused then dumped the doctor’s laptop bag, which had ₹8,000 cash, near the hospital without noticing the money. The officer added, “Two complaints of laptop theft from Sion Hospital were registered on the same day. We first scrutinised the CCTV footage and found Shaikh walking away with the laptops.”

The investigation revealed that Shaikh first spotted a doctor’s car parked near the hospital dean’s office and his laptop in it. “He then broke the back window and took the laptop worth ₹20,000 and a hard disc from there. After this, he spotted another car with a laptop, which belonged to one Satish Gaikwad, a resident of Navi Mumbai who had come to visit his grandmother. He stole that too,” said another police official.

Further investigations revealed that Shaikh had a criminal record. “We arrested him after we recovered the laptops from his house in a raid on July 25,” added the officer.

Shaikh has been booked under Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code and is currently under police custody.