Mumbai Crime: Duo drills hole in hotel wall, steals 300 kg statue worth Rs 7 lakh

The Aarey police arrested two men on Monday for allegedly breaking into a star hotel at Royal Palms by drilling a hole in its wall and stealing an antique statue worth R7 lakh. They then chopped it up into several pieces and hid them in the forest.

One of the arrested accused was identified as Ismail Shaikh, 21, the nephew of a criminal Ameen Pathan, who is serving a life sentence for murder. Ismail and his co-accused Jalal Shaikh, 21, broke the wall of the Imperial Palace hotel, created a tunnel and entered it on October 12.

Jalal Shaikh and Ismail Shaikh

They stole a 10-foot high metal statue of a Roman warrior and dragged it into the Aarey forest. They had broken the statue to bring it out of the hole and later cut it into many pieces and hid it in the forest to sell as scrap.

On the complaint of the security-in-charge, the police registered a case and under the guidance of senior inspector Jyoti Desai, the detection team including PSI Ulhas Kholam began searching the crime spot. They soon spotted marks in the mud.

"We searched the entire Banguda forest, and scanned CCTV footage across the area and finally identified the accused. We caught the duo from the Filterpada area on Monday. During interrogation, they confessed to the crime and we found parts of the statue weighing 300 kg from the bushes," said an officer.

On Monday, we received a call from a scrap dealer in Kurla who had been approached by Ismail Shaikh and Jalal Shaikh, who had tried to sell the pieces of the statue, he added. Police said Ismail claimed he was in love with a girl and stole the statue in a bid to earn some money and impress her.