Mumbai Crime: Cops trace mobile thief within 12 hours!

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A 22-year-old youth, accused of snatching away mobile phones from taxis that slow down ahead of traffic signals in South Mumbai, was arrested within 12 hours of an offence being registered at the JJ Marg police station.

Accused Abdul Kedar Qureshi was arrested after Sandeep Gupta, 29, registered a complaint after losing his phone near Bhendi Bazaar on March 17. Gupta had taken a taxi from Charni Road to Masjid Bunder and was busy chatting with his friend when the taxi reached SVP Road. "Just when the taxi stopped at the Bhendi Bazaar traffic signal, Qureshi, who had been following it, snatched the phone from the window before sprinting away," the police officer investigating the case said. While Gupta alighted the taxi to chase him, Qureshi had disappeared in the narrow lanes of the bazaar.

A detection team enquired with local shop owners about the accused. But none of them had any information and the lane that Qureshi had used to escape did not have any CCTV cameras either. "An informer told us that he had just come out of jail on bail," the investigating officer said. Qureshi had been in jail for six months in a cheating case registered at the JJ Marg police station. The police then checked their records to ascertain his identity and address and ultimately tracked him down to an address in Wadi Bunder. "He has confessed to the crime and we have also recovered the mobile phone Qureshi had snatched," the police said. The accused has been remanded to judicial custody.

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