28-yr-old thief who targeted Manora MLA hostel arrested

Cuffe Parade police have arrested a 28-year-old man who had succeeded on several occasions to pinch valuables from the Manora MLA Hostel. According to cops, the accused, who is a resident of Jalgaon, used to gain entry into the premises by bandying about the name of one MLA or the other.

He would then look around for any rooms that had been left unlocked by the occupants, and flee with mobiles, laptops or cash that he found lying around. "We have recovered a mobile phone and five memory cards from the accused Nilesh Karnavat," said Janardhan Kharat, senior inspector of Cuffe Parade police station.

"The accused has stolen other phones too and we are yet to recover them," said Kharat. The police surveyed closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage from the area in which the accused was visible, tracked a cellphone he had swiped, and picked him up from Dadar area. "Karnavat used to stay in Dadar, and whenever he managed to steal something substantial, he would go back home to Jalgaon and return when he had run out of money," said Kharat.