Borivali Gold Haul: Gangs from Jharkhand, Bengal come to city for gold, follow similar modus operandi, says Police

“A lot of men from these villages keep coming to Mumbai all over the year and scout for jewellery stores to steal from,” said Gunaji Sawant, senior inspector, Borivali police station.

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According to Sawant, the gang would identify a store with an empty shop plot next to it and then contact the owner to rent it. They would then pay three months’ rent upfront. “In this case, they told the owner that they sold mangoes and in April, paid Rs 1 lakh as three months’ rent. The owner was happy to receive the money and did not visit them,” Sawant said. He added that the gang always chose seasonal businesses, like selling mangoes in Mumbai in the summer, so they could shut abruptly.

According to police, the accused struck up a friendship with Nishit Shah (33), the proprietor of Megha Jewellers in Borivali West. “They began by selling mangoes to Shah and frequenting his shop. They became familiar with the shop’s interior, the position of the CCTV cameras, Shah’s routine and opening and closing time of the shop,” Sawant said.

On the night of June 21, after both shops had shut for the day, the accused used gas cutters, which they had rented, to cut a hole in the wall that their shop shared with Shah’s shop. “There were eight men and they were inside for no more than an hour. They took all the jewellery kept in the display area and from the interior. They were unable to open a safe in which Shah had stored more jewellery, worth Rs 25 lakh,” Sawant said. When Shah opened the shop on June 23, he found gold diamond and silver jewellery from his shop were missing.
The thieves, however, did not take the digital video recorder in which the CCTV footage was stored. Sawant said that the footage did not help them because the accused had covered their faces with handkerchiefs.

The police initially arrested Sandip Gosaliya and Manohar Doshi, the owners of the plot and a estate agent, for selling the plot to the accused, without making a rent agreement or informing the police. Their arrests led the police to two of the eight men who had broken into Megha Jewellers.

“We found that they had rented a small house in Rawalpada slums in Borivali East. However, the accused did not live there most of the time,” Sawant said.

The two men were held with jewellery worth Rs 13.66 lakh, which Sawant believes they were about to sell, before returning to the village. “The accused were leaving Mumbai in small batches after selling their share of the jewellery, so as not to attract attention. It is through interrogating these men that we came to know about their villages,” he said.

The Borivali police is working closely with their counterparts in Kalachowkie where a similar crime took place in June. “We believe that the accused in both cases are different, but the modus operandi is the same,” an officer said.

srinath.rao@expressindia.com