17 December,2020 07:46 AM IST | Mumbai | Faizan Khan
Munmun Hussain was finding it hard to get a job, was struggling to maintain her lavish lifestyle and, hence, turned to crime
A 46-year-old former orchestra singer involved in multiple theft cases in Mumbai and other places was arrested by Unit 05 of the Mumbai Crime Branch from Bengaluru on Tuesday. The Mumbai police and Crime Branch had kept an eye on her since 2018 when they noticed her unique modus operandi. She would steal expensive goods from shopping malls and crowded market areas of different cities. She has multiple cases registered against her in Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
The woman was identifed as Munmun Hussain alias Archana Barua alias Nikki. She originally belongs to Kolkata, but has been staying in Bengaluru for the past few years. The Mumbai Crime Branch was on the lookout for her in an April 2019 case of stealing the hand bag of a woman shopping in Phoenix Mall, Lower Parel. The handbag had jewellery worth more than Rs 13 lakh, Rs 50,000 cash and her iPhone 07.
The case was transferred to Mumbai Crime Unit 05 on November 29, 2020, from the NM Joshi police. A team of PI Yogesh Chavan, API Surekha Jaunjal and API Amol Mali and other officers found she was involved in similar theft cases in 2018 registered at NM Joshi Marg police station.
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Hussain seen in CCTV footage
"As we found details of her involvement in multiple cases, we started working thoroughly on them and based on technical evidence she was nabbed from Bengaluru," said Jagdish Sail, senior PI of Crime Branch, Unit 05.
So far the police have got details of five cases registered against her in Bengaluru, two in Hyderabad and one in Kolkata. The officers found that she was arrested in 2013 by NM Joshi Marg police in a theft case and was let out on bail.
During the further probe, the Crime Branch found that she was a known orchestra singer in Hyderabad and Kolkata. In 2008 due to the global financial crises, her husband who was into the export and import business in Hyderabad suffered a massive loss. The couple then fled to Kolkata to avoid people who had given him loans. They later got divorced. Hussain wasn't getting a job and was not able to maintain her lavish lifestyle and turned to crime. She would travel by air various cities for the crimes.
The Bengaluru police arrested her multiple times from 2012 to 2019. She was also arrested by the Kolkata police in 2009 and by the Hyderabad police in 2008. The Mumbai Crime Branch looked into more than 100 CCTV footages to get information about her.
They have recovered all the cash and items stolen from the handbag in the April 2019 case from Hussain's house. They also found the clothes she had been wearing that day, as seen in the CCTV footage.
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