Mumbai Crime: Friend assaults, robs man's elderly mother in Bandra

Sameer Raichurkar and Ismail

A friendship of 15 years did not mean a thing when misfortune struck this automobile businessman from Bandra. He was so deeply in debt that he thought nothing of assaulting the elderly mother of his close friend and robbing her house in Bandra on Tuesday. Crime Branch sleuths, however, had him in handcuffs within 24 hours of the crime. They also recovered all of the stolen booty.

The robbery
On Tuesday, around 1.30 pm, a man came to the house of Nazneen Mehboob Merchant (60) at her building in Bandra (West). "When he told her he was a friend of her son Azeem, she invited him in. Once inside, however, he threw pepper powder in her eyes and tied her hands and legs with rope. He also flashed a knife at her, threatening to kill her. He then took gold and silver ornaments and cash amounting to R5.12 lakh and ran off. When Merchant was finally able to free herself, she approached her neighbours, who helped her file a case with the Bandra police," an officer said.

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Unit 9 started a parallel investigation under the guidance of Senior Inspector Mahesh Desai. Nazneen was asked to describe the attacker. Also, Assistant Police Inspector Sharad Dharade, Kishor Patil and Constable Rajendra Pednekar made a list of all of Azeem's friends and started speaking to them.

Nazneen, too, was asked to have a look at them, but did not recognize any of them as the robber.

During interrogation, the police found that one of Azeem's friends, Sameer Raichurkar (30), had incurred huge losses in his business. He kept telling the cops that he was away from Bandra when the robbery happened. However, informers established that Sameer was in the area when the robbery happened and after sustained questioning, he spilled the beans.

The truth
Sameer had been running an automobile business and had run up losses of around R10 lakh. Sameer knew Azeem for the past 15 years and had also shared his financial troubles with him. Azeem, an interior decorator, used to help Sameer with money off and on. The two used to meet at a tea stall at Pali Naka.

A few days ago, Azeem told Sameer that he was going on a 15-day trip to Manali. Sameer immediately hatched a plan and roped in Ismail Sheikh, a plumber by profession. Sameer promised Ismail a large share of the loot if he helped him rob Azeem's house.

On Tuesday, Sameer came with Ismail to Azeem's building and told him to gain entry to his house by claiming to be Azeem's friend. Sameer did not go himself as Azeem's mother knew him. Ismail did as directed. Both have been charged for robbery and under other relevant sections of the IPC.