The police have recovered the weapon used in the ₹2.09-crore dacoity in Vashi, only to find that it is actually a cigarette lighter in the shape of gun.
The lighter was found in the office of Firoz Zhaikh (27), one of the people arrested for the dacoity, in Mumbra during a police raid on Saturday. The police also recovered ₹5.5 lakh.
Sunny Shinde (29), one of the other accused, had used the ‘gun’ to threaten the complainant’s wife and daughter to be quiet, and then tied them up. After the crime, Mr. Shinde gave the lighter to Mr. Shaikh, who kept it in his office.
“The lighter looks exactly like a real gun. When the trigger is pulled, it produces a flame,” police inspector Nitin Gite said.
According to the police, the dacoits only intended to rob the complainant, and hence used a fake gun.
After Mr. Shaikh’s arrest, he told police that he had given the weapon to a third person, but later confessed to having kept it in his office.
Meanwhile an additional ₹5.20 lakh was recovered from a real estate agent, who had received it from accused Jibrail Khan alias Munna (36) as advance payment for a house in Mumbra. With this, the police have recovered a total ₹1.09 crore of the stolen money.
So far, nine people have been arrested and two are on the run. A car used in the crime is yet to be recovered. The crime took place at the residence of Arun Menkudale, an APMC trader, when his wife and 22-year-old daughter were at home on the afternoon of October 27. The main accused, Anita Mhasane, was a friend of the trader’s wife, and is married to a havaldar attached with the Khandeshwar police station.
Ms. Mhasane, the alleged mastermind, convinced the other accused that Mr. Menkudale had black money, and thus would not approach the police even if he was robbed. As a result, the accused were confident that they would not get arrested, police officers have said.
