The driver had a different address and even his phone was switched off; yet, the cops managed to find him in two days and returned the valuables to the passenger.
The Thane Nagar Police recently traced a rickshaw driver and even found a bag full of 7.5 tola gold left behind by a woman passenger. The police went through the challenges of tracing a rickshaw whose last four digits was the only clue. The driver had a different address and even his phone was switched off; yet, the cops managed to find him in two days and returned the valuables to the passenger.
It was a wild goose chase for the Thane Nagar Police when Shanta Shette (68), a resident of Mira-Bhayander road came to the police station on March 15. Shette was in Thane for some work and last Friday took a rickshaw from Makhmali Talao, Thane to Thane railway station between 10am to 11am. "She had a handbag which had 7.5 tola gold jewellery like gold chain, bangles, and Rs 1,000 cash which she forgot in the rickshaw," said senior police inspector Mangesh Sawant, Thane Nagar Police Station.
The cops immediately began the technical analysis and went through the CCTV footage of rickshaws in that area. Through the video footage they got the rickshaw number MH04 and last four digits 2899. "The middle series number was missing. So we went to the RTO office and went through the rickshaw numbers of 2899 and 2897 series," he said. The cops got the names and addresses of drivers and visited all of them. But, they could not find one driver from the list provided by Thane RTO (regional transport office).
Since the said rickshaw was on loan and the RTO office had the required documents, the cops went to one Ekta finance company in Thane which had given the loan to the driver. They learned that the driver had not paid the EMIs (estimated monthly installments) on the rickshaw for the past one year. The also got his home address which was of a chawl in Majiwada. "When we went there we learned that the chawl was demolished some five years back. We inquired with people in the area and somehow got the driver's mobile number," says he.
The cop thought that they have almost solved that case but even the mobile number was switched off. "So we got the old call data records of the number and went through the list for the most common caller. This common caller gave us the address of the rickshaw driver who stays in Vaghoba nagar slums of Kalwa in Thane," he said. His rickshaw number was MH04-GN-2899.
On Monday morning, the cops went to Vaghoba nagar and found the driver who himself was unaware of the bag of gold. "He did not know that there was a bag left behind the seat by a passenger," he said. The cops took the bag and returned it to Shette on Monday afternoon.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Shanta Shette")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}