Mumbai: The police have arrested three people who would allegedly travel in Mumbai-Pune Shivneri buses and steal laptops.
Over the past two months, the Matunga police and the Pune police have received complaints of missing laptops. “We analysed the pattern and found that most of the thefts took place either in the early mornings or early evenings, when the buses are full. We sent a team that travelled for 14 to 15 days before we got a breakthrough,” said an officer with the Matunga police.
The officer said that on Monday, a team was travelling in one such bus in the morning. When it stopped at Food Court in Lonavala for refreshments, the policemen, who were in plain clothes, kept a watch. The team found three men going through the bags on the luggage racks, and caught them red-handed.
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“The trio would identify bags with laptops and after the bus started moving, would wait for passengers to doze off. The accused would then get up from their seats, which were booked in a way that they were sitting far away from each other, just as the bus was approaching the next stop. They would pick up the bags with laptops and get off at the stop,” said the officer. The trio, identified as Tanvir Chaudhary, Mansoor Rajput and Hassan Qureshi, were arrested, and brought to Mumbai. The police raided Qureshi’s residence in Bhindi Bazaar and recovered 15 laptops.
“The accused would sell the laptops for ₹7,000 each and divide the money. We are working on recovering the computers that they have already sold,” said inspector Vijaykumar Ambarge, Matunga police station.