Robber’s red shoes help cops nab duo

Mumbai: Five days after they rob-bed a 70-year-old woman after posing as courier boys in Kashimira, a duo of robbers were caught by the local crime bra-nch (LCB) unit of the Thane (rural) police for their involvement in the daylight crime. Interest-ingly, it was the pair of red-coloured shoes worn by the driver of an aut-orickshaw, which was hired by the accused that helped cops crack the ‘blind’ case.

The incident was rep-orted in Gaurav Valley area of Hatkesh in Kas-himira on July 23 when the victim Pushpa Shu-kla (70) was alone in her sixth floor apartment. Two men rang the doorbell, posing as courier delivery boys. When the unsuspecting woman opened the door, the duo barged into the house and decamped with cash and valuables worth nearly `3.35 lakh.

Sensing the gravity of the brazen crime, additional SP Prashant Kad-am, led the LCB team to catch the criminals. Du-ring investigation, it em-erged that the duo had hired an autorickshaw after committing the crime. Since the images captured by the CCTV were hazy, the LCB team failed to establish the registration number of the auto.

However, the driver was seen wearing red shoes. Based on the clue, the police personnel tracked the auto dri-ver who said he had dropped the duo at the Mira Road railway station. “This was an important breakthrough which helped us ascertain Dahisar as the destination of the duo. Our core informer network was activated in the region, which finally led to the arrest of the duo identified as Avinash Shukla (26) and Dipesh Atke (19). The stolen booty worth `2.67 lakh has been recovered from their possession,” said Mr Kadam.

A case under sections 392 and 452 of the IPC has been registered against the duo, who have been remanded in police custody till August 1.  Further investigations are underway to ascertain the duo's involvement in other cases and an inside hand into this particular crime, police said. 

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