Powai police have arrested a 33-year-old mechanical engineer for stealing expensive bicycles of the students from Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) campus and selling them on online classified site OLX. Police have so far recovered seven stolen bicycles from him and suspect that he has stolen more bicycles and are trying to recover them. Arrested accused has been identified as Harishchandra Gadekar, a Byculla (West) resident.


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According to the police, on Monday, a 25-year-old IIT-B student Ashvini Pale, lodged a complaint with the Powai police claiming her bicycle was stolen by someone from the campus. Since the police had received similar complaints in recent past, they had put a dedicated team to catch the thief. Police officials visited the campus several times and also developed network of informants inside the campus. Soon police received reliable information about a suspect who had come to steal a bicycle.

"Our men immediately rushed to the spot and detained a suspect red-handed while taking away a bicycle. He was later identified as Gadekar. During interrogation he admitted to having stolen bicycles from the campus and selling them off on OLX site to make quick bucks," said Anil Pofale, senior inspector of Powai police station. The probe revealed that Gadekar, who is an M. Tech, had left his job as he wanted to do PhD and therefore he would often visit IIT-B campus to meet professors for academics reasons.

He told police that one day he found a key in campus and tried to unlock an expensive bicycle with that. He was successful in unlocking the bicycle. He stole that bicycle and from there on he started stealing bicycles from the campus using the same key which he turned into a master key (which police are trying to find out how). "Each of these expensive bicycles costs around 40,000 and Gadekar would sell them on OLX for around 10,000. We have recovered seven bicycles so far from Vikhroli, Walkeshwar, Byculla, Parel and Kopari area. We suspect that he may have stolen more bicycles and further interrogating him," said an officer from the Powai police station. Gadekar also told police that he was in depression over some personal reasons when he resorted to stealing bicycles; however, police are not buying his claims.