Mumbai: 'Jewel thief' backs out of police chase, returns loot within 24hrs

Mumbai: 'Jewel thief' backs out of police chase, returns loot within 24 hours

Iqbal Sheikh's mother Rakhiya shows where the jewellery had been left, nearly 24 hours after it was first stolen. Pic /Milind Karekar

An unidentified thief, who had stolen gold jewellery worth Rs 2.5 lakh, after breaking into a home in Worli, surreptitiously returned the loot when he realised that the police were close on his/her heels.

According to the police, Iqbal Shaikh, a resident of Jijamata in Worli, had filed a complaint with the Worli police station after a jewellery box in his home went missing.

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In the complaint Shaikh had said that on Tuesday he had left his home with his wife and two kids. When the family returned home, Shaikh realised that his house was locked from the inside. Worried that some stranger had entered, he requested one of his neighbours to open the back door. However, when the neighbours went there, they found the back door had been broken. When Shaikh did a quick search of his home, he realised that someone had stolen a box, which had gold jewellery worth R2.5 lakh.

He then contacted the Worli police and filed a complaint. On the same night, the Worli police reached the spot and did a thorough investigation. On the following day, the Mumbai police's crime branch also arrived at the spot and made inquires.

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Incidentally, on the same evening, one of the boys in the area found a bag on the window sill of a home, which was four blocks away from Shaikh's. When Shaikh checked the bag, he found his stolen jewellery inside it.

When contacted, Sunil Mane, senior PI, crime branch (Unit 3), said, "We assume that the accused kept the jewellery back when he learnt that we had visited the spot. We will arrest the accused soon."