Three women brandishing a notebook posed as rationing officers to secure entry into a senior citizen’s house, and then robbed her. But they left the notebook behind, and gave the police a clue which eventually led to their arrest.
According to the Nehru Nagar police, the three women went to the Kurla residence of Manda Nakashe (61), who was alone in her house, and told her that they were conducting a survey for the rationing office. One of the three had a notebook and a pen in her hand to give the impression of an on-duty government servant. Ms. Nakashe admitted the trio into her house, and soon after they were inside, they overpowered her and hit her on the head till she fell unconscious. They then took all her gold jewellery worth Rs. 1.65 lakh and left. A while later, Ms. Nakashe’s husband Baburao got home, found his wide unconscious, and took her to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, where she is under treatment.
The Nehru Nagar police began investigations. An officer said, “CCTV footage of the area indicated that there was one more woman acting as a lookout when the crime occurred. We recovered the notebook that the accused had forgotten in the house, which gave us our first clue.” The notebook, the officer said, bore the name of a Class IV student and her school in Wadala. The police sent a team to the school. From the school authorities, the police got the address of the student; they visited the house and made inquiries with the student’s mother. The woman’s responses sounded suspicious, so they questioned her intensively, and she allegedly confessed to having participated in the crime. Based on her confession, the police went on to pick up the three other women.
All three women were arrested on Tuesday. They have been identified as Asha Hiwale (27), Naseem Khan (40), Lata Gawal (27), and Shobha Harijan (40). The police said Hiwale is related to Ms. Nakashe and knew that she would be alone in the house in the afternoon, after which she hatched the robbery plan.
