Cellphone thief arrested after one-km chase

A cellphone thief has been arrested after a one-kilometre chase by four policemen in Vakola. It was raining heavily on Thursday night when three traffic constables, Mohammed Abbas Mujawar, Rajendra Patil, Pansare Ramchandra and inspector Kishore Bawiskar were on duty at the Vakola signal. As part of the traffic police drive against drunken driving, the officers were checking drivers. Suddenly, they a woman’s scream from an auto-rikshaw.

The three rushed to the rickshaw and asked the woman what was wrong. She girl said a man had snatched her mobile and ran away. On hearing this, the constables started chasing the thief.

After a km chase, the constables caught the thief and recovered the mobile. Proud of the feat of his officers, joint commissioner of traffic Vijay Kamble immediately rewarded them and felicitated the three constables. They were awarded with the good service ticket and were given Rs 1000 each as reward. “I am very happy and proud of my officers,” Kamble said.

DCP Harish Baijal said the best part about the feat was that the accused was caught and the stolen property recovered even before the offence could be registered. “It is for the second time that Mujawar has nabbed a thief while on duty. On an earlier occasion, Mujawar chased a thief after he had snatched a chain and fled,” Baijal said. The accused Vijay Ramu Vaghari, 25, has previous criminal records against him. He has been remanded in police custody for seven days.