Mumbai: Robbers leave shopkeeper in ‘tears’, make away with 700 kg onions

On Saturday morning, vegetable vendor Anand Naik, who sells onions at his roadside cart in Pratisksha Nagar, registered a complaint of theft with the police after he found 14 sacks, containing 700 kgs of onions, missing from his cart. Naik has said in his complaint that he had 20 sacks of onions in bulk, expecting a price hike, on Friday, and had tied the sacks to his cart before shutting shop for the day. When he returned on Saturday morning, he found 14 of the sacks missing.

“The area where the theft occurred is a market area and there are a lot of vegetable traders based in this market. We have made inquiries with seven to eight of them, and are continuing our inquiries. We have also made inquiries with the staff at two to three hotels in this area, and they, too, stand to benefit from getting such a large quantity of onions at no cost,” said Senior Police Inspector Suhas Garud, Wadala TT police station.

[related-post]

Garud added that another possibility being explored was that even if the hoteliers were not involved in the theft of the onions, the culprits might try to sell them the stolen onions at a cheaper rate.

“We are also talking to the suppliers who supply onions to there hotels regularly, to find out if a particular hotel did not buy onions from them, or bought a lesser quantity then usual, on Saturday or Sunday,” Garud said.

The police said that there are no Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs) in the area where the theft occurred, and police station personnel are now scouring the area to find out if any autorickshaw or taxi drivers, or people returning late at night from work might have seen something that can give them a clue.

Onions are currently a precious commodity, with the Union government hiking the minimum export price by $275 per tonne to control the steeply rising prices. The retail price of onions has touch Rs 80 per kg. A consignment of 84 tons of Egyption onions was imported on Saturday to try and help the situation.