Mumbai: Using subtle pressure tactics against the main suspect in a theft case, the Santacruz police on Sunday recovered a designer purse belonging to bestselling author Shunali Khullar Shroff within 12 hours of receiving the complaint.
Shroff, an author of two books, Battle Hymn Of A Bewildered Mother and Love In The Time of Affluenza, approached the police on Sunday morning to report that her designer purse, worth several lakhs, had gone missing on Saturday evening from her residence. The bag also contained gold jewellery.
Shroff submitted a complaint application and the police-initiated investigations into the matter.
“The dilemma we faced was that while Shroff suspected her temporary maid, who had come as a substitute for the regular one, we weren’t sure that she had actually stolen it. The only way to confirm was to confront her directly but we didn’t even know where she stayed at that point,” said an officer who was part of the investigating team.
Ultimately, the police called up the maid and spoke to her for a short while.
“With no sure grounds to actually accuse her, we just let her know that we were investigating the matter and slipped in the fact that successful recovery of the bag, with all the valuables, would be the best result for everyone involved. At the time, she claimed ignorance but also let slip that she was leaving for her native place the same evening,” the officer said.
The worried cops debated the matter and decided that a personal visit was in order before the maid left the city. However, even as they were preparing to leave for Nallasopara to the maid’s house, they got a call from Shroff.
“The complainant started thanking us and we had no clue why. She then said that she had sent us a WhatsApp message to inform us that the maid had handed over the purse, with all its contents, to her building security guard and left in a hurry. We were just about to leave and had missed her message completely,” said assistant police inspector Tushar Sawant, Santacruz police station.
Shroff later took to Twitter to express her appreciation for the Mumbai Police.
“I’m grateful to the super-efficient team at Santacruz Police Station that helped me recover my stolen purse. Spl mention to API Sawant, PSI Trimukhe, HC Pathak & the detection team. Mumbai Police is truly among the world’s best police forces (sic),” she said.