How a birthday gift to a friend led Mumbai police to 2 thieves who had evaded arrest for long

After their release, the duo started working together with a clear modus operandi, the police said. The accused targeted buildings where renovation work was going on and scaled bamboo scaffolding erected for the work.

“The two would target houses at night. They would wear black clothes and walk into buildings when residents were asleep. After scaling the buildings, they would enter the houses and walk away with valuables while the residents slept,” a police officer said.

In 2017, the VP Road police in Mumbai’s Girgaon noticed an increase in such robbery cases in their jurisdiction and launched an investigation. According to the police, they did not have any clue about the suspects. Checking CCTV footage around the crime spots failed to help as the two accused wore black clothes to ensure that the CCTV cameras did not capture them and always committed burglaries at night.

The police began surveillance on the stolen mobile phones. They got their first lead after the accused’s friend inserted a SIM card in the stolen phone gifted to him. “The duo had gifted a phone they had stolen from Girgaon to their friend on his birthday. We traced the number and got him to the police station,” said an officer.

The friend revealed information about Dey and a police team was dispatched to Goregaon. After Dey was arrested, Meena was nabbed from Udaipur.

Investigators said the duo were responsible for many cases of theft in the city. They also admitted to committing crimes in Rajasthan and other states, the police said.