Mumbai Crime: Forty homing pigeons recovered after a month

The residence of Ahmed Khalil Sayyed, the owner of the pigeons, at Habiba Chawl, Qureshi Nagar in Kurla. File pic

The Chunabhatti police have finally recovered around 40 homing pigeons that are capable of finding their way home after travelling even 1,500 km, which were stolen more than a month ago. Cops had earlier arrested the thief, Jishan Waris Khan, 23, and during the interrogation, learnt that he had sold the pigeons to a friend and went undercover. Following this, the cops raided the friend's residence and recovered the birds.

The birds originally belonged to Ahmed Khalil Sayyed, a 23-year-old resident of Qureshi Nagar in Kurla. Sayyed bought the birds for his children and trained them as a hobby. As per sources, one such avian costs around R2,700. The theft took place on November 7, following which Sayyed filed a complaint with the police.

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A police officer said, "Jishan Khan sold these pigeons to his friend and took a token amount from him. He had also told his friend to not sell these birds till he returned, and disappeared." Sub-Inspector Sachin Sarade said, "We have recovered around 40 pigeons that Khan had stolen."

A police source said, "The accused is a habitual offender with multiple theft cases against him. Khan has cases of goat and parrot thefts lodged against him. He has knowledge about animals and how expensive they are. He targets people with such animals."