Six phone thieves arrested from Colaba on New Year’s Eve

MUMBAI: The police have arrested six people for allegedly stealing mobile phones from Gateway of India and Colaba Causeway areas on New Year’s Eve. Four belonged to a gang who travelled all the way from Gujarat and two were from the city.

The four accused are identified as Firoz Shaikh, 40, a driver; Raffiq Salim Shaikh, 28, a labourer; Jubair Patel, 32, a driver; and Imam Latif, 29, a painter. They are all residents of Surat.

“As soon as we got the first complaint on Tuesday night, our teams immediately began going through CCTV footage in the area and picked up four suspects,” said Pravin Munde, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 1. “We recovered six phones from them.”

The officer said the accused travelled all the way from Surat to Mumbai only to steal phones on the New Years Eve when crowd gathers. The four allegedly stole phones mainly from Colaba Causeway, Colaba bus stop, and Gateway of India, as these places were most crowded.

A team headed by assistant police inspector Dnyaneshwar Khandekar with constables Dhanraj Patil, Nilesh Mohite and Raghunath Patil, caught two more suspects. 30-year-old Farukh Shaikh and 50-year-old Santosh Shinde were both residents of Chirag Nagar. Four stolen mobile phones were recovered from them.

Police said the two were habitual offenders with multiple theft cases registered against them. They will be checking the record of the Surat-based gang.

“Currently only three phone owners have approached us with complaints. We expect more people to come forward,” he said.