20 August,2020 07:25 AM IST | Mumbai | Shirish Vaktania
The CCTV footage which helped cops arrest the accused
Powai police on Tuesday cracked the case and arrested a 32-year-old rogue thief who climbed the high rise building in Powai and escaped with gold jewellery worth Rs 9 lakh. The accused, Ajay Vishwakarma is a resident of Nalasopara and according to cops, before committing the crime he did drugs, wore a mask and removed his shoes outside the society.
On July 19, Vishwakarma entered into Wadhwa Lake Front Solitaire tower in Powai. He entered the parking lot of the society through Heera Panna shopping complex. Then climbed up to the first floor, entered the podium parking lot and from there the swimming pool above.
He then climbed the pipes to reach the fourth floor where he cut the pigeon net on the balcony of Bhide family. He tried to enter the bedroom but realised the family was inside, so he continued to climb up. On the sixth floor, he entered the Francis family's house using the same method. Here too, he realised that there were people inside, so he climbed up to the seventh floor.
On the seventh floor, he entered the John family's home by cutting the pigeon net via the balcony. Here he found an empty bedroom while the family slept in another and stole jewellery worth R9.25 lakh and R10,000 cash and escaped using the pipe.
"He would do drugs daily behind the Wadhwa Lake Solitaire society in the BMC garden. That is where he planned the robbery. He also realised that none of the CCTV cameras were functioning in the society," a police official said.
Police inspector Vijay Dalvi of Powai police said, "Accused was caught in one of the working CCTV cameras, but the image wasn't clear. We recovered image from our experts and managed to arrest the accused from Nalasopara. Inside the society around 11 CCTV's were installed, but the cameras were of low quality. He also has a history of house-breaking at Goregaon and other criminal records in Nalasopara."
Speaking with mid-day, Deputy Police Commissioner Ankit Goyal said, "We arrested the accused with the help of the CCTV footage and will recover the stolen valuables very soon. Further investigation is underway."
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