Police to warn shoppers, deter ‘miscreants’ — with five loudspeakers

While the Crawford Market witnesses large footfalls every day due to enthusiastic shoppers converging from all over the city and even from Thane and Navi Mumbai, the Zaveri Bazaar area sees jewellery store employees pick up and deliver raw gold or silver, jewellery, and cash in large amounts. As a result, the area is also seen as an easy target for criminal elements.

“Among the typical crimes witnessed in the area are bag-lifting, pickpocketing and robbing of unsuspecting citizens by men posing as cops. People tend to let their guard down while shopping for the myriad items available in the market and fall prey to these elements. Also, due to the fast-moving crowds and the slick execution of the fake cops, not every victim reports their crimes to us, leading to them going scot-free,” said senior inspector Sanjivrao Mandlik, LT Marg police station.

Earlier this month, the police decided to install the loudspeakers and picked out strategic locations between Crawford Market and Zaveri Bazaar. Two of the loudspeakers were installed at the police chowky near the Badshah Cold Drinks house in Crawford Market, while the three others were installed over shops and establishments around the chowky.

“Our personnel make frequent announcements addressed to the people, asking them to keep a strict eye on their belongings, including their bags and wallets, as well as to keep their children within sight, as a lot of children also tend to get lost. We also appeal to the people not to fall prey to people posing as policemen, to ask for credentials and to insist on going to the police station with them if they suspect that something is amiss, as an actual policeman would always take anyone to a police station or a chowky,” Mandlik said.

Crime branch officers added that the menace of fake cops has become particularly serious over the past few months. In a recent case that the Crime Branch was investigating, the investigating team obtained CCTV footage that had captured a con job, wherein four men efficiently and quickly relieved a jewellery store employee of his bag, which contained a large amount of cash.

“Two of the four men, who had obviously kept a watch on the employee for several days, accosted the man as he was entering the Zaveri Bazaar area and told him that they found his movements suspicious. They them asked him to open his bag, during which time the two others joined in and led the intimidated employee into a van, where they took his bag, pretended to check his identification and told him to come back with his employer. As soon as the employee left, the van took off,” said an officer.

gautam.mengle@expressindia.com