The railway police have arrested a mother-son duo for allegedly stealing gold ornaments valued at Rs10.31 lakh from a jeweller travelling in the first-class compartment of a local to CST.

"We have arrested Abdul Mohammed Sheikh, 29 and his mother Halima Mohammed Rool Alim Sheikh, 50,residents of a slum colony outside Masjid Bunder station (East) under Section 379 (theft) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and recovered stolen ornaments valued at Rs5.71 lakh from them," said senior police inspector Dilip Kumar Mane of CST Railway Police station.

Abdul, an alleged drug addict, was involved in bag lifting and pick pocketing in suburban trains for the past four years. He was convicted for three months by the CST railway court in 2007 and was released from Arthur Road pris-on in June 2007. Mumbai Railway Police commissioner AK Sharma had externed him for three years from Mumbai and Thane.

Jewellery maker Vikhram Jain, 32,was returning to CST after showing the ornaments to a jewellery shop owner at Kurla on July 28. As soon as he alighted at the station, his plastic bag containing the ornaments and a mobile phone was stolen from him. On tracking his mobile phone, the police found that it was being used by a scrap merchant at Masjid bunder. On interrogation, the merchant revealed that he had bought the phone from Sheikh for Rs2,000. API Bharat Bhosale and his team kept a watch for Sheikh at Dhana Bunder outside Masjid railway station and succeeded in nabbing him.

Sheikh told the police he passed the bag to his mother Halima. Halima distributed most of the booty among her three daughters, including a married one staying at Mathura Bazaar in Balrampur district in Uttar Pradesh. She also gave some to her acquaintances. The police have recovered ornaments worth Rs5.71 lakh from Halimas daughters.
Source : DNA