I stole to satisfy my wives: Thief

A 45-year-old man, who was arrested during an attempted house breaking, claimed that he got into robbery to fulfil the wishes of his two wives. The police said besides being involved in similar cases in Mumbai and Raigad, he also has many cases registered against him in Orissa.

Anant Panduranga Bhalerao was nabbed by the Dadar police on December 24 near Prabhadevi when he was allegedly unlocking a house around 1.30 am. The Dadar police said, “There were seven house break-in cases that happened in the area. We started our search operation to nab the accused. On Tuesday we received a tip-off from our sources that a group was planning a robbery. We laid a trap and arrested Bhalerao on Thursday while he was breaking a door, while other members of his group fled the place.”

During investigation Bhalerao told Dadar police the reason behind he started house breaking was to fulfil the wishes of his two wives. He said he first got married eight years ago after being forced into marriage by his parents. About six years ago, he married a second time, this time to a girl who was working with him in construction work. Two years after his second marriage, he found it difficult to fulfil the wishes of both his wives and children and keep them happy, the police said. Bhalerao was living in Orissa at that time. Bhalerao’s second wife threatened to leave him if he did not earn enough money, after which he started committing petty robberies in Orissa, the police said.

An official from Dadar police said, “There were many cases registered against him in Orissa. The Orissa police has been searching for him for the past four years. He left Orissa and came to Mumbai a few years ago and started doing house breaking in Raigad, Pen and Mumbai area. He formed a group of four people who helped him gather information about the areas they would hit. We arrested Bhalerao and are searching for his other three partners.”