Sonu’s home helped solve bank robbery

Sleuths trapped an accused by posing as prospective buyers of the singer's house

Sonu's home helped solve bank robbery

Sleuths trapped an accused by posing as prospective buyers of the singer's house

Playback singer Sonu Niigaam may not even be aware that his bungalow in Versova played a crucial role in helping the Crime Branch solve the sensational Bank of India diamond robbery case, which came to light last week.

A few crime branch sleuths posed as prospective buyers to lure one of the the key accused, Shamshuddin Azmi, into their trap and get his signature to see if it matched the one on the bank's register.

The robbers made duplicate keys to 14 lockers at the Bank of India's Opera House branch and cleaned out diamonds worth Rs 4.4 crore.u00a0Singer Sonu Niigaam

Azmi told the undercover cops that he could arrange for the sale and, when they expressed interest, Azmi thought that he had trapped rich clients he could dupe.

He quoted a price of Rs 15 crore but the officials aware of the fact that Niigaam had already sold the property to one Chaudhary recently requested Azmi to bring the price down to Rs 13 crore.

The officials met Azmi several times during the property deal and, as per the plan, collected all necessary details about the accused.

The sleuths took photographs of him and even convinced him to sign on a blank paper. Once Azmi's signature matched the one scribbled on the bank'su00a0 register, he was taken into custody.

"Azmi is a small-time estate agent. He was aware that Sonu Niigaam's bungalow was on sale and pretended to be its broker.
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Our team posed as prospective buyers and solved the case," said Nishikant Patil, senior inspector, crime branch unit-II.

Niigaam could not be reached for comment.

Hollow claim

During the course of the investigation when the sleuths called a technician of the bank's locker-making company to ask how the duplicate keys could have been made, he said it was impossible to do so.

The technician's claim, however, was proved hollow by key maker Farid Hashmi, another accused in the Rs 4.4 crore heist, who made duplicate keys to the lockers based on descriptions given to him over the phone.

Speaking about the way in which the crime branch team arrested the accused, a visibly-impressed Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner (crime), said, "The method was very unique.
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I have never come across such a modus operandi in my career."

The operation

According to the police, the main accused, Ajay Mehta (48), a resident of Goregaon, had ventured into diamond trading in the '90s, but his business did not click.

Frustrated, he planned a bank heist. The trader booked a locker at the Opera House branch of the bank and Mehta and his men spent time in the vault and gave Hashmi, the key maker, descriptions of other lockers.

Hashmi took around two months to prepare keys to eachu00a0 lockers while a duplicate to the master key was made in three months. The gang has confessed to opening 14 lockers and cleaning out diamonds over a period of 30 months.

Interestingly, only one locker owner, Mehul Doshi, registered a complaint with the police. Officials say the other victims may have kept mum fearing investigation from the income tax department.

Mehta, Azmi, Hashmi and Chandrasen Anand Barde (49) were arrested in connection with the heist on January 18.