Mumbai Crime: 'Customs officers' rob Thai man in Santacruz; five held

Ratchapan Tomisha Buayem was so shaken that he spoke to mid-day through the front grill of his Santacuz house

Posing as Customs officers, four men barged into a house in Santacruz West and took away expensive electronic gadgets and papers from a Thai citizen in the guise of a raid. While mastermind, Mihir Satish Chouhan, is a pilot and stayed away from the scene, the others are bouncers at popular clubs. All have been arrested.

The police said Chouhan, 26, used to work in Thailand and lost his job during the COVID pandemic. Apparently, he had been cheated in this fashion in that country and wanted to use it on a Thai national.

Victim Ratchapan Tomisha Buayem said he was targeted on February 11 at Methu Villa, Juhu Koliwada, where he lives with girlfriend. He was so shaken that he chose to speak to mid-day through the locked front grill of the house.

Buayem said he came to Mumbai in August 2019 as they have a house here. He has been staying with my girlfriend in Santacruz since then. "Around 2.30 pm, four people forcefully entered my house saying they were Custom officials. They snatched my mobile phone, iPads, wallet and documents. Two of them began searching the house, while the others videographed it," he said.

The ‘officers' were wearing white shirts and black trousers and even called Buayem by his nickname ‘Ken'. "They told me I would have to go to Santacruz police station along with them. They made me walk till the main road and asked me to take an auto. When I told them that they had taken away my wallet, one of them gave me Rs 50," said the Thai resident.

Buayem rushed to the police station only to learn that he had been robbed. "I had about Rs 6,000 in my wallet and a few ATM cards," he said.

PSI Yogesh Pawar of Santacruz police station said they scanned the footage of 35 cameras at Santacruz, Juhu, DN Nagar, and Versova to track down the accused from two bikes that had been used by them during the robbery. They first arrested the four near MAHDA, Andheri West around 5 am on Wednesday and later took Chouhan in custody.

"We found that Chouhan worked as a pilot in Thailand and lost his job during the pandemic. He recently shifted back to Mumbai and lived in the same area as Buayem. He knew the victim very well," said the officer.

11
Day in Feb when the victim was robbed

35
No. of CCTV camera footage the cops scanned