Burglar throws chilli powder at senior citizen while looting, nabbed in 24 hrs

A senior citizen woman was assaulted and robbed of cash and jewellery worth over Rs 5 lakh in Bandra on Monday when her son was not at home. The burglar threw redchilli powder, tied her hands with a nylon rope and looted her at knifepoint.

The team of crime branch unit 9 including Mahesh Desai, Kishore Patil, Sawant Jadhav, Kamble and others solved the case within 24 hours of the case was registered at Bandra police station and arrested two youth Sameer Maula Ali Raichurkar (32) from Bandra and Ismail Nawaz Shaikh (30) from Bhiwandi.

“The 60-year-old woman Rajling Merchant was alone when Raichurkar, the friend of her son’s friend, entered her house with some work. After entering the house, Raichurkar bolted the house from inside, threw red-chilli powder on Merchant’s face, tied her both the hands and decamped with some cash and jewellery,” said a senior crime branch officer.

Merchant resides on the second floor of Roshan building in Bandra (West) with her 38-year-old son, who is an interior designer and had gone to Laddakh with his friends for picnic at the time this incident took place.

Raichurkar is a car mechanic and he was aware that the senior citizen woman was alone at home. It was easy for him to enter her house as he was known to her. Raichurkar is debt-ridden and that’s why he planned to loot her with his accomplice Shaikh who is a plumber and resides in Bhiwandi.

At least 19 people were rounded up before nabbing the accused.

“We started investigating the case with almost zero clue of the accused. Our whole team skilfully and thoroughly interrogated witnesses and passers-by and took concrete efforts and nabbed the above accused within 24 hrs and recovered more property from their possession than was mentioned in the FIR,” said the crime branch officer.

The police have recovered Rs 1.55 lakh cash and jewellery worth approx Rs 3,70 lakh. In the FIR, it was mentioned that the burglars have decamped with Rs 2 lakh cash and jewellery of the same amount. Both accused have been booked for tresspass, wrongfully confining the senior citizen and robbery.

Investigations are on.