A trail of closed-circuit television footages leads cops to the owner of the car that was used in the crime
Upgrade of technology is proving to be a boon for the Mumbai police, who recently managed to solve a house break-in case wherein unknown thieves had decamped with cash and valuables worth Rs48.76 lakh. CCTV cameras installed outside the house had captured images of the suspects. After the theft, the suspects walked through the main road junction and disappeared. CCTV cameras set up in South Mumbai for surveillance then came in handy for the police as their feed captured the registration number of the car in which the suspects had fled. The trail then led them to Virar from where one of the suspects was nabbed on Saturday.
The arrested person has been identified as Prafulla Pawar (46), a resident of Virar. Those wanted in the case have been identified as Ejaz, Aslam and Nasir alias Naseem.
According to the police, complainant in the case is an advocate, who resides in a plush housing society on August Kranti Marg in Malabar Hill. On July 16, the complainant and his family had gone to Karjat on a holiday and returned home the next day evening around 9.30 pm. Soon, the complainant realised that his house had been burgled with cash and valuables worth Rs48.76 lakh stolen from the cupboard. He then approached the police.
"The complainant had set up two CCTV cameras. While one camera was to capture movements of outside building premises, the other was to capture activities at the main entrance of the complainant's house. When the CCTV feed of the camera outside the main entrance was checked, it revealed that around 5.50pm on July 17, a man was captured trying to turn the camera towards the wall. The other camera captured the said person leaving with his accomplice carrying bags around 6.22 pm," said an officer from Malabar Hill police station.
When the CCTV footage capturing images outside the building was checked, it showed the duo walking towards the Stephen Church junction. "We then went to the police commissioner's office to check the footage of the CCTV near the Stephen Church junction. The footage showed the duo sitting in a car (registration number MH-04-BY-3713) that was parked near the junction. There was one more person in the car. They then drove away.
We then sought details of the owner of the said car from the regional transport office and were told that the car was owned by Vasai resident Rosy Foss. Further inquiries revealed that Foss had moved with her family to Virar," said the officer.
When the police contacted Foss alias Pratiksha, she admitted that the car belonged to her and that her husband Prafulla used it. "When we made inquiries with Prafulla, he denied having visited Malabar Hill on the day of the incident and said that he had not given his car to anyone that day. During our investigation, we learnt that Prafulla had been in jail for his involvement in a rape case registered with Nalasopara police in November 2015 and had met another inmate Ejaz in jail. In January 2016, they had come out of jail and were in regular contact. Prafulla soon broke down and admitted that he had committed the theft with Ejaz and other associates, and that all the stolen booty was taken by Ejaz and Aslam. Prafulla's car has been seized and efforts are on to trace the remaining suspects and recover the stolen booty," said the officer.
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