Mumbai Crime: Three siblings held for stealing gold, cash worth Rs 4.5 lakh

Sarika Sakat, Sujata Sakat and Mina Umesh Ingale

Three sisters were arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch's Unit XI on Saturday for stealing jewellery and valuables worth lakhs.

In their childhood days, the accused - Sujata Sakat, 35; Sarika Sakat, 26; and Mina Umesh Ingale, 28 - would allegedly steal slippers and shoes from outside houses.

The trio, who are married and have children, grew up in a poor, large household. As it was difficult to make ends meet, and the sisters found it necessary to carry out petty thefts, which landed them behind bars many times. However, instead of turning over a new leaf, they grew more ambitious, according to the police. Half a dozen cases have been registered against each of the sisters in various police stations across the city.

Jewellery that was retrieved from the trio

The husbands of the trio used to work on a daily-wage basis on film sets and once their spouses left the house, the women would also set out on the pretext of dropping their children off at school, said an officer.

The trio had a unique modus operandi: After doing a recce of certain areas, they would enter deserted housing societies posing as housemaids or midwives in broad daylight and, after breaking the locks of houses, steal jewellery and cash.

Recently, a complaint was lodged by an individual at the Kasturba Marg police station about the theft of gold ornaments and cash worth Rs 4.5 lakh. When the Crime Branch started examining footage from a CCTV camera installed in the area, three suspicious women were seen. "During the investigation, it was found that these women would break into houses," said an officer.

Also read: Mumbai Crime: Three, including two GRP cops, held for stealing gold worth Rs 2.47 cr

One of the sisters was seen boarding an auto-rickshaw. The police ascertained the whereabouts of the woman after extracting the information about the vehicle's driver. Crime Branch officers then detained the trio at Kurla and after confirming the crime, they handed them over to the Kasturba Marg police station.

During the interrogation, the trio spilt the beans. "We have recovered 70 per cent of the stolen property," said API Om Totawar of the Kasturba Marg police.

"Cases against the sisters have been registered at the Vanrai, Vikhroli, Mulund, Dombivli, Juhu, Santacruz, Kandivali, Ghatkopar, and Thane Nagar police stations," he added.

70
Percentage of the stolen jewellery recovered