07 May,2014 07:21 AM IST | | Vinay Dalvi
A plumber at a Mumbai Central building would clamber up the water pipes to ninth floor and climb down to the target houses in other wings to avoid CCTV cameras
Be it politicking or pilfering, Spiderman seems to be the flavour of the season. After a south Mumbai independent Lok Sabha candidate canvassed by clambering up building walls and showing up at people's windows, there are reports of a Spidey thief.
The suspect, Nisar Baturddhin Ansari (32), a plumber who hails from Jharkhand, climbed up to the ninth floor and got down via water pipes to the third and fourth floor to commit housebreakings. He was arrested by the Nagpada police, who said the accused managed the water supply in the Doodhwala complex, Bellasis Road in Mumbai Central area.
The Nagpada police received the complaint by one Fatima Dalvi, who resides in the complex. Valuables including five watches, a Note 3 mobile, gold jewellery amounting to Rs 15 lakh had gone missing from her house on April 5, when she was in Abu Dhabi to meet her husband.
The police filed an FIR and picked up several people including Ansari, who had recently carried out some water work in the complainant's flat. "After Ansari was thoroughly investigated, he confessed to the crime," said Additional Commissioner of Police Madhukar Pandey (central region).
Out of the picture
Pandey said, "To avoid CCTV cameras Ansari used to go to the ninth floor of the C wing, from there to the F-wing through common connectivity, and climb down the water pipes to the fourth floor to enter the house. He'd remove the exhaust fan of the bathroom to break in."
When they carried out the panchnama the police were surprised to learn that the main doors were intact. "Ansari confessed to two more crimes in the buildings. He'd climb to the floors with fire refuges and get down to the lower storeys to commit thefts," said DCP Vinayak Deshmukh, Zone III.
Deshmukh added, "He carried out thefts in F-302 where one Anil Antule stays, and stole around 40 grams of gold. He was planning to leave for Jharkhand after getting the money of selling the gold." He also stole R15,000 from the house of another person from the same building, cops said.
