When cops caught thief by chance

An arrest in the Juhu senior citizen murder case, lead to leads in another theft case, where a newly hired servant from Bihar was responsible.

In the second case, the servant, the police said, fled with diamonds worth Rs 27 lakh from his employer, a transport businessman, last month.

The police said the incident occurred on July 26, when a Bihari, who identified himself as Ashish was hired a fortnight ago. A police team comprising Assistant Police Inspector Santosh Bhalekar, Police Sub-Inspector Sanjay Pawar went to Bihar’s Madhubani district twice to nab him, unsuccessfully.

Later, the police team was camped in a neighbouring village to nab the killers of senior citizen Bharati Shah, they chanced upon Ashish.

The police found that his real name was Ashok Mandal, “It was sheer luck that we nabbed Ashok, when we were concentrating on cracking the murder case” said API Bhalekar of Juhu Police station.

In the Juhu murder case, the police have identified the accused as Radhey Mandal. The officials said on the night of September 12, the trio entered the victim’s house to work and strangulated her, said Senior Inspector Arun Bhagat from Juhu Police Station. They ransacked her cupboard and stole the ornaments she was wearing.

The initial investigation revealed that the accused left for Bihar, the following night by train. The other two accused are wanted in the case.

Deputy Commissioner of Police P Dighavkar said, “We  got  first breakthrough when a diary maintained by the victim was found at her table, which had Radhey’s name. Also on a newspaper, the letter ‘R’ was scribbled prominently.”