Mumbai: Cops unlock thief’s ’mute’ button, make him confess to crime

Had helped three others rob a gas agency, but pretended to be dumb when caught; cops manage to convince him he would not get bail as he could not argue his case in court

Mumbai: Cops unlock thief's 'mute' button, make him confess to crime

All the world's a stage, but if you're acting to save your skin after committing a crime, the Mumbai police will see through it. The Ghatkopar police recently detained four employees of a gas agency in a robbery case. One of them, a small-time actor, pretended to be mute, but the police put on a far better act that finally scared him into confessing.

According to police sources, Sachin There, 33, manager of Ashok Gas Service Agency in Asalfa, lodged a complaint in the first week of December. He said someone barged into his shop and fled with R30,000. The same day, police spotted a suspect near Jagruti Nagar metro station who matched the description There gave. However, the suspect was 'mute'. An officer said though they believed he was mute, they still asked him to write down what he knew. He then wrote down three names. He named three people who worked at the gas agency. They were brought to the police station where they confessed to their crime.

Benefit from a friend
The arrested accused were identified as Anand Kamble, 25, Datta Waghmare, 26, and Abhijeet Jadhav, 24. All Chandivli residents, they revealed that Kamble had come up with the idea. The police said they decided not to execute the plan themselves as There knew them all. Jadhav told them a friend of his, Siddhesh Salve, 29, who stays in Ratnagiri, had a case registered against him at Devrukh police station. He could steal the money and leave Mumbai. They called Salve.

On the decided day, they went to the agency. Salve went ahead, but fled with only R30,000 when There retaliated. Scared, the other three accused ran away. Police said Salve went towards Jagruti Nagar metro station.

Mute man speaks
When the police still couldn't get Salve to talk, they hatched a plan. Before taking the accused to court, they separated him from the others. Two policemen then began to talk to each other about him, "that innocent mute man won't be able to talk and the other three will speak and manage to get bail. That poor man will be trapped for no reason. Hearing this, the 'mute' man panicked, and rushed to tell them he had been called to execute the trio's plan. Sudhir Nigudkar, senior inspector, Ghatkopar police station, said, "We have arrested the four accused and recovered the money. The investigation is on."

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