The Pune city police recently dismantled the elaborate double life of Nevanath Vinod Kumar, alias Mohammad Bashar Noor Mohammad, who allegedly married a Bangladeshi woman and lived in Bangladesh using a fake passport. A serial burglar with a decades-long criminal record, the 38-year-old BTech dropout’s journey took him from the streets of Telangana to Bangladesh, and then to the kitchens of France and Spain, before a theft in Pune finally ended his run.
On the night of March 14, equipment worth Rs 6.71 lakh, including specialised cameras and lenses, was stolen from The Territory, a wildlife tourism firm in Karve Nagar. Following an FIR at the Alankar police station, the police tracked a Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle using CCTV footage.
The police formed a team comprising Sub Inspectors Ganesh Dikshit, Mahesh Nimbalkar, Jagannath Bhosale, Assistant Sub Inspector Jagdish Talole, Havaldars Nishikant Sawant, Dhiraj Pawar, Someshwar Yadav, Rajesh Shelke, and Bhanudas Chandgude for the multi-state search operation.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Sambhaji Kadam and Assistant Commissioner of Police Sujata Tanawade coordinated with the search teams and police agencies from other states to trace the burglar.
Senior Inspector Ulhas Kadam said, “We checked several videos captured by CCTV cameras at various spots and zeroed down on a man seen riding a Royal Enfield Himalayan bike suspiciously from the crime scene in Pune to different parts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. He was frequently moving from one place to another.”
Finally, after a six-day search, the burglar was intercepted in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, on March 20, with the motorcycle. When the UP Police searched the suspect, they found the stolen Pune gear, but it was his personal documents that left them stunned.
Kumar allegedly possessed a Bangladeshi passport under the name Mohammad Bashar Noor Mohammad, an Aadhaar card with his original photograph, but a different name.
They also found a diverse stash of foreign currency, including US dollars, Chinese yuan, Malaysian ringgit, Singapore dollars, Canadian dollars, and Bangladeshi taka.
The UP Police booked him at the Ramnagar police station in Varanasi under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Immigration and Foreigners Act. Intelligence agencies also joined the probe, though officials said that no terror links have been established so far.
The UP Police handed him over to the Pune police on March 26 after completing the legal procedures. ACP Tanawade said a Pune court remanded the accused to police custody for five days.
The evolution of a fugitive
The investigation revealed that Kumar, originally from Rangareddy, Telangana, was a BTech dropout who turned to crime as early as 2011. “He was linked to at least 36 burglaries across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” said Sub Inspector Dikshit.
The police said his life took a cinematic turn when he fell in love with a Bangladeshi woman at a beauty parlour in Hyderabad. To evade the police, he allegedly crossed the international border illegally in 2019 and married her. He used forged documents to obtain a Bangladeshi passport under the name Mohammad Bashar Noor Mohammad, listing Dhaka as his residence, in September 2022.
Using this new identity, Kumar allegedly travelled to France and Spain, where he worked as a professional chef. The police suspect he returned to Bangladesh from France a few months ago.
Return to crime
Kumar’s return to India was reportedly prompted by financial pressure in Bangladesh, where he was allegedly booked in a ‘cheque-bounce’ case. The police said that around February 20, he illegally re-entered India via Nepal. He allegedly purchased a motorcycle in a friend’s name in Hyderabad and rode to Pune specifically to commit the burglary that led to his arrest.
The accused is currently in police custody in Pune. Meanwhile, police teams from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are waiting to take him into their custody for unsolved cases in their respective states.
His wife is now in Bangladesh, while his paternal family members are in India, the police said.
The police team with the accused at the Alankar police station (Photo: special arrangement). 
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