Mumbai: Chain snatcher boasts about (nearly) perfect crime, held

Tahir Hussain Rizvi scales the scaffolding of the building hides on the sixth floor and snatches the womanrsquos chain when she comes out IllustrationsRavi JadhavTahir Hussain Rizvirsquos bragging gave him away The 32yearold historysheeter was arrested last week for snatching a 35tola mangalsutra of a Tardeo resident after scaling a building earlier in the month He was caught after he boasted while gambling about how he pulled off his nearly perfect crime The police recovered a majority of the mangalsutraRizvi alias Raju alias Mannu resident of Indira Nagar Santacruz W and notorious criminal named in chainsnatching robbery murder and attempt to murder cases often stuck to Tardeo to pick chainsFinding his targetDuring a reconnaissance last month in AC market in the area he noticed that a building Rajni Mahal was under repairs and scaffolding had been erected till the 10th floor He then hatched a plan to rob a resident of the building by scaling the scaffolding and kept a watch on the inmatesRizvi zeroed in on Vasanti Desai 57 a resident of the sixth floor wearing a mangalsutra which he surmised would weigh at least 2 tolas Within two days he figured out her routine Desai woke up early in the day opened her door switched off the light in the balcony and went back Rizvi decided to put his plan into action during this timeHe is gone in a flash leaving no trace behind A few days later he tries to gamble the mangalsutra during a session with acquaintancesAround 5 am on September 15 just as Desai came out of her house Rizvi who was hiding in the scaffolding snatched her chain and climbed down in a flashDesai filed a complaint with the Tardeo police but couldnrsquot describe the chain snatcher since the crime went down too quickly The police registered a case under section 394 chain snatching of the IPC but without any eyewitness account or CCTV camera footage they didnrsquot have much to go on They rounded up the usual suspects questioned them and let them off Tries to gamble it awayAfter the crime Rizvi returned to his routine life Within a few days he joined a gaggle of gamblers After losing all of his money he pulled out the mangalsutra to place it as a bet When the other gamblers demanded he sell the chain immediately and use that money to place his bet Rizvi pulled out of the gameAmong the bunch of gamblers was a police informer whose curiosity was piqued by the sight of the heavy mangalsutra To get details of how he had scored such a rich booty the police informer allegedly praised him for managing to steal such an expensive chain and then tried to coax all the details out of himA police informer among the gamblers questions him about it and tips off the police who arrest RizviA flattered Rizvi fell for the trap He bragged about how he had scaled the Tardeo building and robbed DesaiSoon after the gamblers dispersed the informer tipped off the police ldquoHe asked us if there had been any chainsnatching incident that involved scaffolding in Tardeo We pressed him for more details and he revealed the identity and residence of the chain snatcherrdquo said Dnyanesh Devde senior inspector Tardeo police stationOn September 29 Rizvi was caught in Santacruz by the police and sent to judicial custody The police said the mangalsutra weighed 35 tolas but half a tola fell off during Rizvirsquos escape They recovered the rest of the chain from him30No of different cases against Tahir Hussain Rizvi across the city