The crime branch suspects that the two men who pulled off Wednesday night’s sensational heist at Cafe Churchill in Colaba are residents of the same area.
The crime branch suspects that the two men who pulled off Wednesday night’s sensational heist at Cafe Churchill in Colaba are residents of the same area.
Police officials say they appear to be well-versed with the locality, and had pre-planned an easy escape route before committing such a daring robbery at a venue located barely a few metres away from the Colaba police station.
Also noteworthy is that the robbers to have no past criminal record. “We have sent the CCTV grabs of the two accused to various police stations and crime branches, and since none of them has reverted with any details about them, we believe that the robbers have no previous criminal record. One of the robbers, who was holding the knife, seems to be from an affluent family, and hence we have asked our informers to cull information from college and pub goers,” said another crime branch official.
At around 1am, two people entered Cafe Churchill, and threatened cashier and manager Qaid Johar Gandhi with a large knife. “The robbers fled after looting Rs26,000 from the cafe. There were four patrons in the cafe, including Gandhi, but since they were afraid of the robbers, nobody noticed in which direction they fled,” said police inspector Deepak Dhole of Colaba police station.
The police have ruled out the possibility of an insider’s job in the heist.
As a precautionary measure, the Colaba police have issued an advisory to around 85 eateries and restaurants in their jurisdiction asking them to beef up their security. “We have distributed pamphlets, and our beat marshals have visited some eateries in Colaba in this regard,” said Dhole.
He said that eatery owners have been asked to employ security guards and install CCTV cameras so that such untoward incidents can be averted. “Though there were CCTV cameras at Cafe Churchill, there was no security guard employed by the cafe. The robbers must have known this, and thus decided to commit the offence,” Dhole said.
“It was a scary incident. This is the first time something like this has taken place here. We had never seen those two accused before in our cafe,” said a woman working at Cafe Churchill, requesting anonymity.
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