Mumbai groom who stole phone arrested in his wedding procession

On Tuesday, while Ajay Sunil Dhote was coming home after having got married at Bandra court, suddenly the wedding party realised the groom was nowhere to be found. Not just Dhote, but his friend Altaf Mirza, who had been dancing with other friends, also seemed to have disappeared.

What the guests hadn’t realised was that Mumbai Police had whisked Dhote and Mirza away because the two had stolen a cellphone on Monday morning.

Dhote and Mirza were arrested under sections 392 (punishment for robbery) and 34 (acts done by several persons in common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The day before, the Tilak Nagar police station received a complaint from a woman who said her cellphone had been snatched.

The incident took place at 9.30am at Amar Mahal junction in Chembur. The woman had been walking with her daughter when two men on a 220cc motorbike snatched her cellphone and rode off. The cellphone was worth ₹10,000.

The woman filed a complaint at the Tilak Nagar police station, following which the police checked the close circuit television cameras (CCTV) in the area.

Although the entire incident was on camera, the bike’s number plate was covered with tape. The police then started making enquiries in Shivaji Nagar and Govandi, after which they managed to ascertain the identity of the two thieves to be Ajay Sunil Dhote and Altaf Mirza, both 22. The police believe the duo sold the phone on Monday itself.

The police decided it was time to pay a visit to Dhote at his home in Shivaji Nagar. In a scene that could be straight out of a Bollywood films, the police found itself in the middle of a wedding party since Dhote had got married in Bandra court hours earlier. They picked up Mirza and Dhote, who were taken to Tilak Nagar police station and placed under arrest.

“The duo was involved in a similar case registered with us in the past. We are investigating if they were involved in similar cases in other jurisdictions as well,” said Satyavan Bile, police sub inspector (PSI), Tilak Nagar police station.

The police believe Dhote and Mirza targeted women and followed the same modus operandi multiple times.

“They gauged the traffic situation before snatching the phones so that they could escape quickly. They borrowed bikes from their friends and hid the number plate before snatching phones,” said Bile.

First Published: Dec 02, 2018 00:03 IST