Mumbai: In the early hours of Thursday, five men wearing shorts, singlets, and masks over their faces broke into the Adhiraj Maple housing society in Kharghar’s Sector 5 and attempted to burgle two flats locked from the outside. They were able to steal ₹23,500 from one flat but got nothing from the other. Police officials suspect, that the group of men that they belong to the so-called ‘ Chaddi-Banyan ’ (shorts and singlet) gang, notorious in the area for similar methods and clothing.
The first burglary was discovered when Chandrama Bhosale, owner of one of the flats, who was travelling outside the city, phoned her mother-in-law, who also lives in another wing of the society, asking her to use the milk in the refrigerator before it spoilt. When the older woman went to the Ms. Bhosale’s flat, she found the door broken and informed the police. The other flat, owned by a Railways officer who is currently posted in Assam, was empty. The society’s CCTV cameras captured footage of the burglars entering the society over a back wall (where there were no security guards) and breaking open locks on four of the eight metal doors that granted entry to each wing of the society.
Vinod Negi, secretary of the Adhiraj Maple society said, “Though the valuables stolen were not much, the incident has spread panic among the residents. We have increased our security and have also started work increasing the fencing and we plan to have a guard dog at the back of the society at night. We have also forwarded clips [of the CCTV footage] to other housing societies in Kharghar and have alerted them about the gang active and advising them to take extra precautions.”
On the same day, a daylight housebreak was discovered in Miracle society, Sector 35, where valuables worth ₹10.62 lakh were stolen. The owner of the flat, Rajendra Sancheti, a businessman, discovered the burgalry when he returned home at 3.30 p.m. and informed the police.
The police said that this incident was unrelated to the first. “We are investigating, but the modus operandi is different in both the cases,” Govind Arlekar, Assistant Police Inspector at Kharghar police station, said.
“Mr. Sancheti had gone to visit a doctor with his wife when the theft happened. We suspect that someone internal in involved in the theft at Miracle society as the society is very new with construction still happening. There are many security guards, but the CCTV installation work is not completed yet so we do not have any footage of that theft.”
