Iron grill couldn’t keep thin thief out

MUMBAI: Even an iron grill couldn’t keep him out. Not because he was big and strong. But because he was small and thin. 26-year-old Shekhar Gosavi is five feet tall but weighs just 45 kg.

Thin enough to slip through an iron grill into an empty flat at Walkeswar and make away with electronic goods worth at least Rs40,000.

Police had been stumped by the theft at the posh Mangalam Apartment residence of Madhavi Datwani, daughter of former advocate-general Dilip Thorat.

Datwani, who lives in Cuffe Parade, had gone to her vacant Walkeshwar flat on February 14 only to find a laptop, a DVD player and a mobile phone missing and the place ransacked.  

Says senior inspector Iqbal Sheikh of Malabar Hill police station: “At first we were baffled at the burglary in the building as the security there was tight. Therefore, we suspected that it was handiwork of a person who was slim and knew the building well.” 

A police team kept a discreet watch on some slim people who lived in the tenant wing of Mangalam Apartment. Sub-inspector Atmaram Kamble zeroed in on Gosavi, who used to work in a printing press at Girgaon but was now unemployed.

He finally broke down and confessed to the crime, inspector Sheikh said.

Police said Gosavi entered Datwani’s first floor flat through the gallery grill on the night of February 13 and walked away with the valuables. That he lived in the same building helped.

Wonder whether the bars in the police lock-up are close enough together to keep him in.