A special team of officers from the Dadar police station sifted through several hours of footage from as many as 130 to 140 CCTV cameras. A 34-year-old man, who wore a black burkha and stole the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) of a CCTV camera to commit a burglary on the 14th floor of a locked office in Dadar (West), has been recently arrested, the police have said.
They said 8 kilograms of silver and Rs 5.35 lakh have been recovered from the arrested man. They added the accused wore a burkha while committing another robbery in Ghatkopar and may have committed more such crimes.
The arrested man, identified as Balwant Gupta, landed in the police net after a special team of officers from the Dadar police station sifted through several hours of footage from as many as 130 to 140 CCTV cameras.
The burglary took place over a period of two days on January 29 and 30 in an office on the 14th floor of Naman Midtown on the Senapati Bapat Marg in Dadar (West). The complainant Jignesh Mehta approached the police on January 31 and a First Information Report (FIR) was registered for burglary.
The police said Gupta entered the shop from the toilet while wearing a burkha. After he spotted a CCTV camera, he turned its angle making its lens face the wall. However, another CCTV camera from another office shows him moving with a sack bag in his hand which gave the police the first clue.
He stole silver worth Rs 8.12 lakh and Rs 7 lakh in cash. He also stole the DVR of the camera and fled. “For 10 days we went through 130 to 140 CCTV cameras installed across Dadar, Matunga, Sion, Kurla and Panvel to get leads in the case and finally nabbed him,” said Mahesh Mugutrao, senior police inspector of the Dadar police station.
“The accused targeted closed offices in plush areas on holidays. He has committed another burglary using the same modus operandi and stole Rs 5 lakh. We suspect his involvement in more burglaries,” said inspector Sagar Shivalkar, who was part of the special team.
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