Hussain confessed to stealing bags of two other customers from Zara in Lower Parel and Lakme beauty parlour in Shivaji Park in 2018, police said. (Representational)The Mumbai Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested a 46-year-old woman from Bengaluru who has allegedly committed thefts in several cities across India for more than a decade. The woman, who lives in Bengaluru, would book a flight and fly to a city in the morning, go to a high profile shopping outlet or mall, steal the handbags of customers there, and fly back home to Bengaluru in the evening, police said.
In Mumbai, the woman, Munmun Hussain, an orchestra bar singer, was wanted in three cases for stealing bags of customers at Zara and Lakme showrooms, while she has also been booked by police in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, police said. She has confessed and said she has been doing this since 2009, police said.
The police said that they started looking for her after she committed a theft at Zara showroom at High Street Phoenix Mall in Lower Parel. Hussain had walked away with the bag of a woman customer from the bill counter, police said.
The woman lodged a complaint at NM Joshi Marg police station on April 6, 2019, saying she had lost her phone, gold ornaments and cash totalling to Rs 14.90 lakh. “While the complainant was paying the bill, she kept her handbag on the floor and Hussain picked it up and fled,” said Police Inspector Yogesh Chavan.
“We had managed to get CCTV footage in which Hussain was clearly visible and we had been trying to locate her since then. Through human sources and technical evidence, we managed to identify her and located her in Bengaluru,” said Chavan.
Hussain confessed to stealing bags of two other customers from Zara in Lower Parel and Lakme beauty parlour in Shivaji Park in 2018, police said.
Hussain would book an air ticket and travel to another city in the morning, would commit a theft and fly back to her city by evening, police said.
Hussain is divorced with a daughter and as she could not fund her daily needs through the money earned from her job, she decided to commit crimes, police said.
“She committed her first crime in Kolkata and has been doing it since then. We believe that there are several other cases registered against her in other cities as well. We are trying to get details,” said an officer.