Maharashtra: Doctor-targeting ‘tadipar’ thief exposed by CCTV after another burglary

NAGPUR: A 23-year-old externed thief, earlier arrested after burgling a doctor’s house, again struck at a medical practitioner’s residence in Narendra Nagar, fleeing with valuables worth Rs9.50 lakh, including Rs5 lakh cash.
Sanmet Dabhne alias Pongya — who is supposed to stay in Gondia as per his externment order — tried to destroy evidence by damaging the CCTV camera installed at Dr Sharad Tripathi’s home but the recorder already had his image, which subsequently helped the city police crime branch recover valuables worth Rs9.09 lakhs within 24 hours. The Tripathis had kept the stolen cash handy for some construction work.
Sources said Beltarodi police had nabbed Sanmet sometime ago after he had stolen around 1kg gold from another doctor’s house in the past.
Sanmet, a dreaded burglar, was externed from Nagpur city for his crime records as a house-breaker. The latest theft underlines his resumption of criminal activities in the city.
The crime branch, under additional police commissioner (addl CP) Navinchandra Reddy and DCP (crime) Chinmay Pandit, has also arrested Sanmet’s elder brother Manthan and their cousin Vikas for allegedly retaining the stolen valuables the 23-year-old brought. Sanmet, who has some stolen cash with him, is still at large.
Police sources said Sanmet had been visiting the local police station in Gondia as per the externment order but was likely to be visiting Nagpur for burglaries on a regular basis.
It’s learnt that Dr Tripathi and his family had left home on Friday noon. Sanmet, having a substantial number of offences against him, scaled the boundary wall before jumping inside. He later broke a door on the rear side to gain entry.
Seeing one of the many cameras inside the premises, Sanmet smashed one of them. The ploy to damage CCTV cameras failed as the recorder had already captured his image by then. The image was later retrieved during investigation.
Senior officials from the Beltarodi police station circulated the CCTV footage in official groups following which the crime branch’s detection unit one, under sub-inspector Jhadokar, rounded up the Dabhne cousins from their residence at Rana Pratap Nagar, apart from recovering the stolen materials. Sanmet had sneaked away by then.
The crime branch is learnt to have recovered around 102gm gold out of 107gm stolen, worth Rs5.40 lakh, from the other two. Around Rs1.63 lakh cash was retrieved from the cousins. A special team has now been formed to nab Sanmet.