Mumbai Crime: Man who stole model's purse arrested at Versova

Grabs from the CCTV that show the thief stealing the purse

A day after mid-day reported the theft at actress Upasana Singh's birthday party that took place on June 29, the Versova police on Saturday arrested the mysterious man who was captured in the CCTV, fleeing with model Kaya Sharma's purse.

The incident took place when Sharma was talking with her friend and had kept her purse, which had her cellphone, cash, ATM cards and her friend's flat and vehicle keys, on the side. Taking advantage of situation, the man who has been identified as Pravin Kumar alias Deepak, quietly sat on the sofa near her purse, even using a pillow to cover it, and then picked it up on the pretext of picking up the pillow. The entire act was captured on the CCTV, using which the police raced him, sources said.

Kaya Sharma

After the 23-year-old model learned that her purse had been stolen, she reached out to Versova police and lodged an FIR. The cops then started questioning the staff at the venue and found that Deepak had visited Upasana's party along with an event management executive whose company he had been working with.

The cops then located Deepak and had detained him on Friday night. A police official said, "We have arrested the accused in the matter under Section 380 of the IPC and have recovered the stolen property." The source also added, "According to the model's complaint, her purse had two expensive cell phones, Rs 20,000 in cash and her ATM cards."