An artist-turned-criminal saved officers of the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg police station the job of getting sketches of his accomplices drawn by a police artist.
An artist-turned-criminal saved officers of the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg police station the job of getting sketches of his accomplices drawn by a police artist. While investigating a robbery that took place in a jewellery store in August, the police found that one of the suspects, Ramesh Kaligauda, was holed up in a flat in Vashi.
When they raided the house on Monday, they were surprised to find sketches of several men hanging on the walls. Intrigued, the police questioned the 36-year-old and learnt that they were his partners in crime.
Kaligauda’s own sketches were used to trace his gang members. The police arrested Vijayan Nair, 38, Mangesh Bhurawane, 36, and Rajesh Gurav, 38, the same night.
The trio was arrested and booked for allegedly stealing silver ornaments and two mobile phones at gunpoint. The police also recovered two countrymade revolvers and three live cartridges from Kaligauda’s rented flat.
“Kaligauda was an artist. But he wanted to become rich in a short time and so took to robbery,” said Sanjay Nikam, assistant inspector, Kidwai Marg police station. A native of Karnataka, Kaligauda functioned under assumed names such as Shiva Poojari and Anna.
The police learnt that Kaligauda was sentenced to seven years in prison by a sessions court in 2003 for a murder in Pydhonie and robbery at Dindoshi. During his stay in Yerwada jail in Pune and Nashik prison, he would draw sketches of other inmates. It was there that he met his Nair, Bhurawane, and Gurav.
“After his release, he went back to his old ways and began committing robberies again with his new-found friends,” said Nikam. “But since he loves to draw, he would make sketches of his gang members and hang them on the walls. This made it easy for us to identify them.”
Nair hails from Kerala and spent seven years in prison for robbery. Bhurawane and Gurav were also sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for robbery at VP Road and Nagpada in South Mumbai, respectively, police said.
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