Mumbai Crime: Thief who stole from people posing as a police official held

Kabuli Naushad Ali Jafri

A 52-year-old resident of Irani basti near Ambivali station in Thane was arrested by the property cell of the Mumbai crime branch on Saturday. According to the police, many residents of the locality have been booked for chain-snatching, among other things, and the locals, especially women, tend to shield them from arrest.

The accused, identified as Kabuli Naushad Ali Jafri, has 45 registered cases of chain snatching and cheating while posing as a police official against him in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and elsewhere in Maharashtra.

Jafri was on the radar of the police and crime branch for the past few months. In a case at Meghwadi, Jafri posed as a crime branch officer and took a gold chain and ring from a woman who was on a walk near her residence. "In this case, we had arrested two accused, including a woman, and main accused Jafri was wanted," said Shashikant Pawar, senior PI, property cell.

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The officials then found that he stayed in Irani basti. "Attempts were made to arrest him from there but the locals always created a hurdle for law enforcement agencies. Women were specially planted to stop us for some time so the culprit could escape easily," another officer said.

"The property cell of the crime branch made at least three attempts to arrest Jafri but failed due to non-cooperation from locals. We then laid a trap and nabbed him from his residential locality," Pawar added.

Jafri was produced before a court on Saturday and remanded in police custody till September 28. "We have made full recovery in the Meghwadi case and investigation is on to recover the valuables in other cases," the officer added.

Three
No of times the property cell of Mumbai crime branch had tried to arrest him