Petty criminal feigns sickness to con cops

A criminal with at least a dozen registered cases of theft and chain snatching attempted to hoodwink the police on Saturday by claiming he had consumed poison and needed urgent medical attention.

After his arrest by a special squad, Nadeem had been handed over to the Bandra police on Friday for investigation into a robbery case. The next day, in order to evade being sent into further custody, he pretended to have ingested poison and requested help.

Alarmed police officials rushed him to the Bhabha civic hospital in Bandra for treatment, although he showed no signs of having ingested toxins of any sort. After observing him for two days, hospital authorities declared him clean.

Police sources revealed that Nadeem was earlier arrested by a special police squad for being involved in over 13 cases of theft registered across suburban police stations. The police suspected that he might have been involved in several more cases, but Nadeem revealed little during interrogation.

Senior police officials said, “As a history-sheeter, Nadeem knew very well that he would be taken into further custody by other police stations for interrogation in cases related to their jurisdiction. In order to avoid this, he played the prank.”