26 June,2017 11:30 AM IST | Mumbai | Suraj Ojha
In a copycat crime from abroad, gang of five to seven, push and shove victim in Mumbai, while another snatches the phone; a man misdirecting the victim in opposite direction puts the finishing touch
The group of thieves walks behind Bharat Parikh, as seen in a CCTV grab.
If you thought you were perfectly safe walking among the crowd in the middle of the road, think again. Even something as innocuous as walking alongside other people on the road could land you in trouble. A senior citizen, Bharat Parikh, learnt this the hard way when he was recently robbed of his cell phone and documents by a group of seven to eight people walking alongside him.
In the first case of its kind, the Charkop police have come across a unique way in which a mobile phone and documents were stolen from the senior citizen, by a group of people who walked with him for a few metres.
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One of them pushed him, while another grabbed a pouch that contained the belongings. When Parikh confronted one of them, he pointed to another person, who pointed to another person. Former Kandivli resident Bharat Parikh (65) who currently stays in Kolkata, had come to Mumbai to rent out his house. For the purpose, he had withdrawn Rs 20,000, from an ICICI bank ATM.
According to Parikh, he had kept his money, along with his mobile phone and bank cheque books, in his pouch. On June 5, he was walking towards the real estate agent's office, to meet a person through whom he was to give his house on rent, when he was robbed.
Bharat Parikh, Victim
Not me, him!
Narrating the incident, Parikh said, "I thought there were about four people who were following me, and one of them suddenly pushed me from behind. One of them then forcibly snatched my pouch. I tried very hard to save it. When I caught one person's hand, he said it wasn't him, and pointed a finger at another guy. That guy said it wasn't him, the person had run and boarded a bus. I saw the bus and boarded it. I asked other passengers who had boarded the bus just before me. They said no one had. Then I looked outside and saw the men had gone."
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Parikh said, "I went to the nearest police station and lodged an FIR against 4 to 5 people. I had observed there were those many people."
According to the police, as per the victim's statement and description, they have registered an FIR against four people under Sections 392, 34 of Indian Penal Code.
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Parikh was fortunate to get back his cheque books and bank locker key which were in that pouch. He said, "A woman found them on the road and as my son's mobile number was printed on one, she called him."
Expert thieves
But Parikh was disappointed that there was no progress on the case from police. He went back to the theft spot and found a CCTV camera installed on a society gate near it. "I requested the society office bearers to provide me the footage. I saw it and realised that there were more then 4 people, there were around 7 to 8 people who had expertly targeted me," he added.
