Mumbai: ‘Spiderman thief’ scales 10 floors to rob Rs 12 lakh, arrested

MUMBAI: A youth climbed to the 10th-floor flat of a businessman in a 22-storey building near Grant Road, entered by breaking the glass toilet window, forced the cupboard and calmly walked out with cash and ornaments worth lakhs through the front door. The family was away.
The “spiderman thief”, 25-year-old Mukhtar Ali alias Mausam has been arrested and remanded in police custody. Investigators have recovered stolen ornaments worth Rs 7 lakh from him.
The businessman, who is in the stock clearing businesses at CST railway station, approached the V P Road police on August 5. He said he had left for Bihar after hearing about a bereavement in his family on July 22. When he returned, he found the Kumbharwada flat’s safety door open, and soon discovered the theft of cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 12 lakh.
DCP Rajiv Jain formed a team led by senior inspector Hemant Bhaudhankar and sub-inspector Dilip Tambe to crack the case. They found renovation work was underway in the building and a bamboo scaffolding had been erected all around the building till the sixth floor.
“Though the building has CCTV cameras, it had backup for only seven days. We checked with the building but couldn’t get CCTV footage of the time of the incident,” said an officer. Failed by technology, the police turned to good old detecting.
They began questioning the family closely. At one time, the businessman said he had set out to renovate his flat before the building’s refurbishment and one Mausam had undertaken the work. He remembered that they had told Mausam about their impending departure for Bihar. Moreover, before leaving, the complainant’s wife had paid him Rs 10,000 as part-remuneration. He had apparently keenly watched the notes being taken out of a bundle by her.
“With this information, we began work to trace Mausam, who had not reported to complete his work. We got his location in the area while he was searching for work and arrested him,” said the officer.