Mumbai: Anti chain-snatching unit cracks major robbery; yet to solve own cases

Over seven months after it was set up Mumbai Policersquos anti chainsnatching unit ACSU has finally cracked its first case the sensational 2011 robbery of Rs 55 lakh at Vashi Navi Mumbai While this is quite a feat in itself the case is not in the unitrsquos jurisdiction ACSUrsquos purpose is to solve crimes in Mumbai specifically chainsnatchingsA poster warns citizens about chainsnatchers The ACSU was set up to tackle chainsnatching in Mumbai after the rise in such cases over the years Representational picSo as it stands the squad is yet to detect a single case assigned to it so far Earlier this year this paper had reported that even five months after its instatement the ACSU was struggling without basic equipment such as vehicles or even a telephone lsquoNo vehicles computers telephones for anti chainsnatching squadrsquo midday January 14Itrsquos no surprise then that all the team had managed was to collect FIRs for chainsnatching incidents from various police stations across the city With the arrest of five people involved in the 2011 robbery however the squad seems to have broken the dry spell and earned itself some longawaited creditldquoThe gang has finally been arrested after they spent four years on the run All the arrested accused are now in the custody of the Vashi police under whose jurisdiction the crime lies Further investigations will be done by themrdquo said DCP Mohan DahikarThe robberyOn March 3 2011 one of the accused Girish Nair posed as a courier person and entered the house of Rajaram Jagdishwala the owner of Blue Chip Insurance and Investment in the afternoon At the time only his wife daughter and bedridden mother were present at homeHis accomplices grabbed mobile phones from the family and cut the wires to the landlines leaving them without any means to communication Nair then threatened them with choppers saying they would be killed if anyone stepped out of the house in the next 15 minutesIn that period the gang made off with gold and diamond jewellery weighing 2 kg and Rs 5 lakh cash A taxi driver Manohar Mudaliar was keeping watch outside According to sources the driver would regularly ferry the owner Jagdishwala to Fort and the two would talk during these cab rides which is how Mudaliar hatched the robbery planAlmost exactly four years to the day on Saturday the ACSU arrested five accused in the case including Nair Mudaliar and one Ibrahim Sheikh alias Ibbu as well as two other accomplicesSenior Police Inspector Pramod Kokate who heads the squad said ldquoI got a tip off about the accused We figured out the gangrsquos role in the sensational robbery of 2011 After finding proper leads and details about the accused we arrested them within two hoursrdquoUnit is readyWhat of the unitrsquos own chainsnatching cases though The squad has been operational since September 2014 and cases continue to pile up According to DCP Dahikar the squad is now well equipped and is working on the pending cases ldquoThe unit has all the equipment that it needs About the chainsnatchings the team is investigating and will solve them in timerdquo he said