Crime Watch

A second year BSc student was picked up by Unit-9 of the Crime Branch along with two other associates at Saki Naka this morning. Khan Shakeel Ahmed, who had at one time aspired to become a Customs officer, had accompanied Sameer Hussain Sheikh and Sheikh Mohammed when they were arrested. The police consficated two pistols and a country-made revolver from the trio, who allegedly belong to Chhota Shakeel gang.

In another incident, the Vakola police arrested a resident of Dharavi and consficated a country-made revolver from him on Sunday evening. Mohiulla Gulzar Sheikh, who is alleged to be a gunrunner, was accosted by a police party which found him moving in a suspicious manner in Hans Bhogra road near the Kalina campus of the University of Mumbai. The police claimed that Shiekh, a saree printer by profession, had earlier sold a similar weapon a few monthsago.

Most-wanted robber held

Police arrested one of the most wanted among robbers in the city and recovered gold and cash totally worth over Rs 31 lakh recently.

Ram Bali Singh 30, allegedly involved in over 16 robberies in the city, was picked up from Guddi Beer Bar at Andheri E May 27, a day after he pulled off a robbery at Karjal Ornaments, Goregaon W, according to Additional Commissioner of Police north-west Rakesh Maria.

Singh has been named in over 16 major robberies and cases have been registered against him at Bandra, Kandivli, Khar, V P Road and Ghatkopar police stations.

In the latest robbery, he struck at Goregaon8217;s jewellery shop while the owner, Mukesh Kothari, his manager Raju Baghel and other staff left for lunch at 1.15 pm. When they returned at around 3.20 pm they found the shop ransacked. Gold valued Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1.3 lakh in cash kept in the showcases and safes were found missing.

While the shop8217;s rear window was forced open, the robber had left no other clue.The finger prints were also too faint to lead investigators to the culprits.

Records with the Crime Branch8217;s Modus Operandi Bureau MOB hinted Singh could be involved in the robbery. Police searched his temporary residence Rahat Manzil at Worli and recovered six kgs of gold and Rs 70,000 cash while near four kgs of gold were given to jewellers at Zaveri Bazar for melting.

The police have described Singh as a lone operator, who specialised in breaking into house after removing airconditioners and exhaust fans and spent his booty on buying expensive clothes and visiting dance bars, added Maria. A native of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, Singh is the father of a daughter.

Smuggling watch parts: 2 postal employees held

Officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence DRI arrested two employees of the Department of Posts on charges of smuggling wrist watch spare parts on Sunday.

Kishore Narayan Bambale, a postal assistant, and Rajendra Manjenath Chadekar, a mail guard, were today producedbefore Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Usha Iyer who remanded the duo to judicial custody till June 17.

The duo were caught switching sealed parcel bags from a postal van near a small bridge at Vidyanagari, Kalina on the Western Express Highway on Sunday afternoon. DRI officers who were waiting some yards away intercepted the van.

The bags from the van which was sought to be replaced by dummy bags had come from Doha, Qatar and contained watch movements worth Rs 15 lakh, dispatched by one Edward Fernandes to Helen Fernandes, a resident of Margao in Goa. The sealed bags had documents where all formalities regarding customs clearance were completed. While the dummy cloth bags contained fuit juice tins with fictitious addresses in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Bambale claimed that he had received Rs 2000 from an unknown person at Chhatrpati Shivaji airport while Chadekar had received Rs 10,000.