Held 10-year-old’s gang committed high-profile thefts in Mumbai

Police officials investigating Sunday’s theft at five-star hotel Ramada Plaza by children have learnt that the gang was involved in similar high-profile cases in the recent past.

Though it was difficult to get the 10-year-old girl they have nabbed to talk, her leads are being considered crucial by the police to catch hold of the other gang members.

“So far, we have found out that this was not their first success. There are around four similar cases in the Santa Cruz area. Obviously, the kids are not alone in this,” said additional commissioner Amitabh Gupta, adding that the gang seems to comprise two adults and over four to five children.

The gang followed the same modus operandi for thefts at two different places in Santa Cruz in the past five days. “They recently fled with Rs70,000 from singer Suresh Wadkar’s Ajivasan Hall in Santa Cruz and had managed to steal cash and jewellery worth Rs1 lakh from Hotel Sea Princess,” said senior inspector Madhukar P Chaudhari of the Santa Cruz police station.

Interrogating the girl proved to be a difficult task for the police. Chaudhari said: “She just would not say anything. Initially, she did not even tell us the name of her parents or give any information about her siblings. Considering that she’s so young, we did not even have the option of getting harsh on her.”

The girl was part of the gang of three to four boys and girls, aged between seven and 14, who gate crashed a wedding party at the five-star hotel on Sunday and walked out with a bag full of cash and jewellery worth Rs3 lakh.

While there is no trace of the other kids, the police succeeded in catching hold of the girl on the basis of the CCTV footage. The girl is lodged in the Dongri remand home.

“Our investigation has found a direction with whatever information we have got from the girl,” said Gupta.