Mumbai: The RAK Marg police have arrested a 39-year-old woman—an accused in a cheating case—around 14 years after she jumped bail. In a scenario worthy of a Bollywood movie, the cops posed as Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) staff and post-office workers to get hold of her phone number and then trap her. Eventually, it was a tattoo of ‘Om’ on her right hand that helped confirm her identity.
Manjula Devendra, while working as an accountant with an air-conditioner manufacturing company in Sewri in 2008, had stolen a blank cheque and later cashed it for ₹45,000. The Sewri police arrested her, but she was released on bail.
“After she absconded, our officers made several attempts to trace her but in vain. This time, Assistant Police Inspector Mahesh Lamkhede and his team identified various locations where Tamil people stay in the city and checked areas in Sion, Antop Hill, Nehru Nagar and Amar Mahal Junction. They found women called Manjula, but none of them had a tattoo, her identification mark,” said senior police inspector Kumud Kadam of RAK Marg police station.
The police knew that Devendra used to initially stay in Sardar Nagar in Sion Koliwada and even had relatives there. “However, whenever we approached them in the past, they were very hostile,” said Lamkhede. “So this time, we posed as SRA officers and pretended to carry out a door-to-door survey of the chawl. We learnt which room was hers, and asked them for her address so that she could get a new house when the chawl was redeveloped. They didn’t give it but they did share her new mobile number.”
Lamkhede said that after studying the Call Detail Record of Devendra’s mobile number, they came to know that she was present at Nagdevi Street in South Mumbai through the day and later in the night at Ghatkopar.
“Both areas are crowded, and we didn’t have her address. So we decided to approach her in the guise of postmen. One of our lady officers changed her WhatsApp display picture to Indian Post and profile name to Bhartiya Post and started calling her. We told her that there was a document, probably an appointment letter of hers with us, and we were unable to find her address,” said Lamkhede.
Initially, Devendra was unwilling to believe the story. “However, we told her we were returning the letter, and if she didn’t come in an hour’s time the process would start,” said Lamkhede. “To our surprise, she landed up at Mandvi post-office. We identified her by her tattoo and arrested her on Wednesday. She will be produced before the Dadar court that has issued several warrants against her and later even declared her a proclaimed offender.”
When she committed the crime, Manjula Devendra was 25 years of age. But since she had changed her name to Manju Nair and kept changing her residential address, the police found it difficult to track her down.