Mumbai Crime: Cop accused of looting Rs 40 lakh jewellery from shop during raid

Sourav Jewellers at Sakinaka that was raided on December 15, 2021

The Crime Branch is probing a senior inspector after a jeweller alleged that the officer, who was earlier posted at Kalachowki police station, looted valuables worth Rs 40 lakh under the pretext of a raid at his Sakinaka shop. The investigation against Sudhakar Shirsat, now the senior PI at Juhu police station, began after the jeweller complained to Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey.

Anand Rana, the owner of Sourav Jewellers, said Sirsath and his team barged into his shop on December 15, 2021, after he purchased gold jewellery worth Rs 15 lakh from a certain Anil Rajbhar, who later turned out to be a thief.

"Six policemen entered my shop along with a blindfolded man who was later identified as Anil Rajbhar. They made Rajbhar confront me and I accepted that he sold gold jewellery to me as he needed money for the treatment of his ailing father," said Rana, 45. He said he had no idea that the jewellery was stolen.

The vehicle that the raid team came in

"After cops made Rajbhar sit in the police van, Sirsath asked his men to remove all the heavy pieces of jewellery kept on display. He then asked his men to remove the DVR [digital video recorder] so that their loot cannot be recorded in the CCTV cameras at my shop," Rana alleged.

The jeweller said Sirsath asked his team to put all the jewellery in a bag. "They have taken away about 1.5 kg gold and 3.5 kg silver worth Rs 73 lakh, while they showed only gold jewellery of 650 grams worth Rs 33 lakh on paper," he said.

Rana said he was taken to Kalachowki police station after the raid. "On the way to the police station, I heard Shirsat talking over the phone with someone saying ‘mera kaam ho gaya, ab isko melt karna hai'," he Rana. The jewller said he learnt through RTI that Shirsat had not informed the local police station about the raid.

"My wife had to run from pillar to post to know my whereabouts as the cops did not inform her or my relatives after I was taken to Kalachowki police station. My family and neighbouring shop owners initially thought that someone had kidnapped me and looted the shop," Rana said.

Valuables at Rana's shop

The jeweller said his wife first approached the Sakinaka police who had no idea about the raid. "Somehow, the Sakinaka police learnt that I have been arrested by the Kalachowki police," he said.

The jeweller said he was produced in the Sewree court which remanded him in police custody for 4 days. He said the cops made him sign on a piece of paper but did not allow him to read it. "In the evening, they put me in a lock-up at Mulund," Rana said.

The jeweller said he was again taken to Kalachowki police station on December 17 and was made to sit there the whole day. "At 9.30 pm, one PSI asked me to undersign a paper. Again, I was not allowed to read the content."

"Later, I learnt that I had been booked in a fresh case. And after my four-day police remand completed in the first case, the same set of cops arrested me in this fresh case which was completely false…" he added.

Sudhakar Shirsat was then posted at Kalachowki police station (right) Shop owner Anand Rana said Shirsat didn't inform local police about the raid

Rana was released on bail on January 5. Since then, he has written to the chief minister, home minister, BMC chief and others. "But my complaints went unnoticed."

"In February, I met the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Vishwas Nagre Patil who asked me to meet his office staff but nothing happened. On March 3, I met Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey at his office," said Rana.

"After patiently hearing me, the commissioner asked his office to call Shirsat, who rushed to his office. But he refused to accept the offence which he committed at my shop in connivance with his team members," said Rana.

The jeweller said his shop has remained shut since the raid as the valuables and the keys have been taken by Shirsat and his team. "No panchnama has been conducted…things are kept helter-skelter and the entire shop must be in a messy condition…but Shirsat shrugged off saying that he does not know where the keys are," Rana said.

Even Pandey was not convinced with the "vague" response of Shirsat, Rana said. "It was the reason he asked the Joint CP (Crime) Milind Bharambe to look into the matter. The Crime Branch chief has asked Unit 4 to investigate the serious matter," Rana said.

"How can police confiscate the entire pieces of jewellery of my shop but show the seizure in minimal? Where are my hard-earned pieces of jewellery? How will I run my house? Who all distributed these?," he asked.

‘Baseless allegations'

Shirsat said rejected the charges. He said, "All the allegations made by Rana are baseless. He was arrested in a case and we recovered around 650 grams of stolen gold jewellery from his possession."

A source in the Crime Branch told mid-day, "We have been carrying out an investigation to connect the dots. The allegations are serious in nature. We have recorded the statements of more than two dozen people including the local shop owners and vendors."

"We have also recorded the statements of police officers who conducted the raid and submitted a preliminary probe report to senior officers on March 6," added the Crime Branch officer requesting anonymity.

Rs 75 lakh
Value of jewellery taken away as per jeweller Anand Rana

Rs 33 lakh
Value of the jewellery shown in police records