MUMBAI: Three history sheeters were arrested on Sunday for stealing cash and valuables worth around ₹50 lakh from the house of an elderly businessman in Andheri on February 7, said the police.
According to the Amboli police, the accused have been identified as Suryamani Nadar, Jaywant Charsingh Pawar and Surya Kadvi Mudaliar. A local court remanded them to police custody for four days, and the police added that they are trying to recover the stolen property.
The police said the burglary took place between February 7 and February 10 at a flat in GBS Teacher Colony, Four Bungalows, Andheri. The complainant, 65-year-old businessman Joel Clement Rodrigues, lives in the flat with his family and runs a vintage car business. He has two sons; the elder one lives in Canada, and the younger one was to be married soon in Rajasthan.
Rodrigues and his wife had travelled to Jaipur on February 7 to book a wedding venue for their younger son. Before leaving, they locked their flat and left one set of keys with an employee, Sunil Kamble, who supervises the domestic help.
On February 10 around 11.45am, Kamble visited the flat and found the window grill broken and the cupboards ransacked. The locks of four cupboards had been forced open. He immediately informed Rodrigues, who returned to Mumbai with his wife.
After checking the cupboards, Rodrigues found that diamond and gold jewellery, expensive watches and other valuables worth approximately ₹50 lakh were missing. He then lodged a complaint with the Amboli police, who registered a case of burglary against unknown persons.
During the investigation, police analysed CCTV footage leading to the arrest of Mudaliar. When he was interrogated he confessed to committing the crime with Nadar and Pawar, who were then arrested.
“The three are history sheeters and would conduct recce of residential areas to identify locked houses to break into at night,” said an officer from the Amboli police station. The police are questioning the trio to trace and recover the stolen items.