Officers of the Mumbai Crime Branch have cracked a sensational diamond theft racket. A gang of four used to make duplicate keys of bank lockers and would then empty them of cash and valuables.
Officers of the Mumbai Crime Branch have cracked a sensational diamond theft racket. A gang of four used to make duplicate keys of bank lockers and would then empty them of cash and valuables.
The police have recovered diamonds worth over Rs4 crore from the quartet. The arrested four have been identified as kingpin Ajay Mehta, Shamshuddin Azmi, Farid Hashmi and Chandrasen Berde.
According to joint commissioner of police (crime) Himanshu Roy, in April last year, a diamond trader, Mehulkumar Doshi, lodged a complaint with the DB Marg police stating that his diamonds worth Rs1.65 crore kept in the Opera House branch of a nationalised bank locker had gone missing.
The DB Marg police investigated the case and the initial suspicion fell on the custodian, as the locker keys are with him and the customer. But the case went nowhere and was closed in October.
The crime branch then took it up and its Unit II, headed by inspectors Nishikant Patil and Bhaskar Kadam, was entrusted with the responsibility of solving it.
“We first analysed the visits to the locker room since the past three years to check if there was a pattern. It was learnt that nearly 36,000 customers had visited the locker room and there were several entry and exit points,” Roy said.
He added that the police soon hit upon a trend. “There were a few people who were visiting the locker more than once daily. We zeroed in on these four persons and then kept a vigil on them,” Roy said.
Additional commissioner Deven Bharti said crime branch officials disguised themselves as customers interested in buying diamonds, and met the accused.
“Their behaviour and mannerisms were suspicious. They were arrested on Tuesday, and have confessed to the crime,” he said.
“The diamonds were not sold but were kept at Mehta’s Valsad residence as they can be easily traced. We have seized property worth Rs4.40 crore from the location. The quartet has been remanded in police custody till January 25 by a local court,” Bharti said.
Mehta and Azmi are family friends. Three years ago, Mehta told Azmi about the bank and said that since it is near the diamond market, many traders keep their diamonds and cash in its lockers. He told Azmi that if they could make duplicate keys of the lockers, their contents could be stolen.
“Azmi knew Hashmi, and also about his family business of making keys. Hashmi told Mehta that he would provide them with blank keys, which would have to be inserted into the lockers for scratches and indentations, with which he can make duplicates,” Roy said.
After three months, Hashmi managed to make both the customer and custodian keys. The four have confessed that in the past three years they have opened nearly 14 lockers from the branch and have found diamonds from eight of the lockers.
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