The Worli police have arrested a civil supervisor and two others for allegedly stealing nearly 150 kg of iron-concrete blocks from the project site on the Mumbai Coastal Road. According to the police, the man who raised the theft complaint turned out to be the main accused in the case. The prime accused, Robin Kumar Vishnu Singh, 27, works as a civil supervisor with a private company contracted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the Coastal Road project.
Police said Singh, who originally hails from the Kishanagar area of Rampur village in Bihar and lives in Worli, filed a complaint about missing scrap material — but an investigation later revealed he had masterminded the theft himself. Along with Singh, police also arrested driver Prakash Ledo Mahto, 35, and scrap dealer Kumaluddin Khan, 38, who allegedly helped transport and dispose of the stolen material.
According to officials, on October 18, the project manager and project engineers instructed Singh to clear and stack discarded construction material — including wheel-shaped iron concrete blocks — near Gate No. 3 at the Worli Sea Face site.
A few days later, engineers noticed that the iron-concrete blocks were missing. When they questioned Singh about it, he claimed that all the material was there. However, after checking the area, the seniors realised that the heavy iron-concrete blocks had indeed disappeared. This confirmed that a theft had taken place — and it was then that Singh approached the Worli police station and filed a complaint to appear innocent and divert suspicion.
Police said that on October 29, Singh walked into the Worli police station claiming that three iron-concrete blocks, weighing around 150 kg, had vanished. Following the complaint, a theft case was registered against unknown persons, and an investigation was launched into the incident.
According to the police, CCTV footage from the site revealed a dumper truck leaving the premises around the time of the alleged theft. Police traced the vehicle and detained Mahto, who confessed that he had removed the blocks on October 20 on Singh’s orders. He further admitted that the iron had been cut with a gas cutter and sold as scrap.
Based on his statement, police arrested scrap shop owner Kumaluddin Khan, who allegedly purchased the stolen material. Investigators also recovered `10,000, the amount earned from the sale, through Khan’s brother Afzal Hussain Jamaluddin Khan, 33, in the presence of witnesses.
“An insider cleverly posed as a complainant to divert suspicion, but CCTV evidence exposed his real role as the thief,” said a senior officer.
All three accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for theft, criminal breach of trust, and common intention. The police are also probing whether the trio was involved in similar thefts at the Coastal Road project site.
