The Mulund police have arrested a 32-year-old history sheeter for allegedly stealing from passengers travelling on Mumbai-Pune AC sleeper bus. According to the police, the accused, Akash Kumar Kiritbhai Patel, who was released from jail in August for a similar offence, is a notorious criminal operating alone by posing as a passenger.
Patel is originally from Gujarat. “His modus operandi was to book AC sleeper bus tickets under fake names through mobile apps, board the bus from Borivli or Sion at night, and steal valuables from passengers’ bags while they slept,” said API Sunil Karande, who is the investigating officer in the case.
His primary targets were women or senior citizens, said the officer, adding that he would get down early in the morning in Pune and return to Mumbai before the thefts were noticed. The complainant in this case is a Mulund-based man named Ajay Sondkar. He, along with his wife and two children, had booked three seats on a private AC sleeper bus, travelling to Mahabaleshwar on August 29.
During the overnight journey, his wife had placed her brown bag containing her mangalsutra, a cupboard locker key, and Rs 3500 in cash in the luggage rack above their seats. The family reached Mahabaleshwar the next morning and only realised later that the valuables were missing.
Initially assuming the items had been left behind at their Mulund home, the family checked with relatives but could not locate them. Upon following up with the travel company, Sondkar later obtained CCTV footage of the bus, where an unidentified co-passenger was seen rummaging through his wife’s bag around 4.05 am on the same day.
Convinced that the man had stolen the pouch, Sondkar approached Mulund police to register a case. The stolen items — an old gold mangalsutra weighing about 28 grams, Rs 3500 in cash, and a locker key — are estimated to be worth over Rs 2.8 lakhs. According to the police, since Patel was released on bail in August, he has travelled four times on the same route.
Mulund police said they managed to trace Patel using technical assistance and arrested him from Mira Road on Monday night. “All we had was unclear CCTV footage, but using technical assistance and data from the mobile app which was used by the accused to book bus tickets, we managed to trace the accused,” added Karande.
Patel has over four similar cases registered against him, mostly in the Kamote area in Navi Mumbai, and police suspect there may be more unreported incidents. “We are looking for more victims of similar offences. It’s likely that many are going unreported,” said an official, adding that the motive behind the crime was easy money.
“He recently got divorced and was living in a rented apartment in Mira Road. Before he started committing crimes, he had a garment business, but that failed. He has been unemployed for many years and was disturbed because of domestic and financial problems,” added the official. Police said that following his arrest, Patel is currently remanded to judicial custody, and police have managed to recover all the stolen items from him.
