04 October,2016 07:00 AM IST | | Santosh Wagh
Tahir Hussain Rizvi alias Raju alias Mannu's bragging gave him away. The 32-year-old history-sheeter was arrested after he boasted, while gambling, about how he pulled off his nearly perfect crime
Tahir Hussain Rizvi scales the scaffolding of the building, hides on the sixth floor, and snatches the woman's chain when she comes out. Illustrations/Ravi Jadhav
Tahir Hussain Rizvi's bragging gave him away. The 32-year-old history-sheeter was arrested last week for snatching a 3.5-tola mangalsutra of a Tardeo resident after scaling a building earlier in the month. He was caught after he boasted, while gambling, about how he pulled off his nearly perfect crime. The police recovered a majority of the mangalsutra.
Rizvi alias Raju alias Mannu, resident of Indira Nagar, Santacruz (W) and notorious criminal named in chain-snatching, robbery, murder and attempt to murder cases, often stuck to Tardeo to pick chains.
Finding his target
During a reconnaissance last month in AC market in the area, he noticed that a building, Rajni Mahal, was under repairs and scaffolding had been erected till the 10th floor. He then hatched a plan to rob a resident of the building by scaling the scaffolding, and kept a watch on the inmates.
Rizvi zeroed in on Vasanti Desai (57), a resident of the sixth floor wearing a mangalsutra, which he surmised would weigh at least 2 tolas. Within two days, he figured out her routine: Desai woke up early in the day, opened her door, switched off the light in the balcony and went back. Rizvi decided to put his plan into action during this time.
He is gone in a flash, leaving no trace behind. A few days later, he tries to gamble the mangalsutra during a session with acquaintances
Around 5 am on September 15, just as Desai came out of her house, Rizvi, who was hiding in the scaffolding, snatched her chain and climbed down in a flash.
Desai filed a complaint with the Tardeo police, but couldn't describe the chain snatcher since the crime went down too quickly. The police registered a case under section 394 (chain snatching) of the IPC, but without any eyewitness account or CCTV camera footage, they didn't have much to go on. They rounded up the usual suspects, questioned them and let them off.
Tries to gamble it away
After the crime, Rizvi returned to his routine life. Within a few days, he joined a gaggle of gamblers. After losing all of his money, he pulled out the mangalsutra to place it as a bet. When the other gamblers demanded he sell the chain immediately and use that money to place his bet, Rizvi pulled out of the game.
Among the bunch of gamblers was a police informer, whose curiosity was piqued by the sight of the heavy mangalsutra. To get details of how he had scored such a rich booty, the police informer allegedly praised him for managing to steal such an expensive chain, and then tried to coax all the details out of him.
A police informer among the gamblers questions him about it, and tips off the police, who arrest Rizvi.
A flattered Rizvi fell for the trap. He bragged about how he had scaled the Tardeo building and robbed Desai.
Soon after the gamblers dispersed, the informer tipped off the police. "He asked us if there had been any chain-snatching incident that involved scaffolding in Tardeo. We pressed him for more details and he revealed the identity and residence of the chain snatcher," said Dnyanesh Devde, senior inspector, Tardeo police station.
On September 29, Rizvi was caught in Santacruz by the police, and sent to judicial custody. The police said the mangalsutra weighed 3.5 tolas, but half a tola fell off during Rizvi's escape. They recovered the rest of the chain from him.
30
No. of different cases against Tahir Hussain Rizvi across the city
