Mumbai Crime: Duo held for house theft in Borivali, valuables recovered

Santosh Chaudhary (25) arrested by Borivali police

The Borivali police have arrested a thief who used to climb trees like a Spider-Man and enter buildings to steal houses. The police have also arrested one of his accomplices who used to stand with a motorcycle outside the building to escape after committing the crime.

The arrested accused have been identified as Santosh Chaudhary (25) and Zeemad Arman Ali Sayed (23). Both habitual criminals have multiple criminal records of house theft using the same modus.

The detection officer API R Tadvi and his staff checked hundreds of CCTV footage and managed to trace the accused and caught the duo from Andheri's Veera Desai area on Monday, said an officer.

Accused Chaudhary used a unique modus as he mastered and was an expert in climbing huge trees. They targeted buildings that had trees either inside or outside the premises and it is branches are close to the flat's balcony. No matter how tall the tree is, Chaudharu easily climbed on it and entered the house.

On April 19, the duo robbed a house in the Borivali's Ganjawala Lane area.

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He enter the balcony of a house situated on the fourth floor of "The Bhoomi Saraswati building". He entered the bedroom and stole valuables worth about Rs 8 lakh and escaped.

The senior citizen couple living inside the flat realized the theft in the morning. While the couple was sleeping in one of the bedrooms, the cupboard of another bedroom was open and the jewelry was missing. They approached the Borivali police station and registered the complaint, the officer added.

"We checked the CCTV footage outside the gate and found the accused entering the flat climbing on the tree and back down from the same. They escaped on the bike. We trace the accused and caught them from the Andheri's Veera Desai area. During the interrogation, they confessed to the crime and recovered some stolen valuables," said another officer.

The duo are habitual criminals. Chaudhary is a master at climbing the trees. He can even climb on small and narrow pipes to jump into the flats and rob the houses. The duo was produced before the court and the court remanded them police custody, he added.