Team Herald
CALANGUTE: Calangute police arrested 12 suspected thieves on New Year’s night, recovering 55 cellphones worth around Rs 15 lakh from them.
The suspects were found moving suspiciously at Calangute beach on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 and were picked up on suspicion by police who were on patrolling duty, Calangute PI Dattaguru Sawant informed Herald.
“On questioning them they could not give satisfactory answers regarding their presence in the vicinity and also they could not justify the possession of cellphones found in their possession,” he said.
A total of 55 cellphones of various brands were found in their possession, all worth Rs 15 lakh.
“In order to interrogate the suspected persons and verify cellphones in their possession, they were placed under arrest under Section 41 of CrPC. Further inquiry is in progress,” the PI said.
The suspects have been identified as Rashid Mulla (21), a resident of Assagao, Mazid Miah (29), Meneraf Mulla (19), Kharijun; Islam Mulla (34), Santu Mulla (22), all residents of Calangute and natives of West Bengal. Adil Malik Kazim (30) and Mohammad Shabaz Manjuri (27), from Delhi, Arvind Gaikwad (37), Ajay Jadhav (40), Rehman Jalauddin Ansari (21) and Nasir Shaikh (34), all from Mumbai and Murli Singh (19), from Uttar Pradesh.
The arrest of the 12 on Saturday night brings the total number of alleged cellphone thieves arrested by Calangute police to 29 in the last three days of December, with mobiles worth Rs 65 lakh being recovered from their possession.
According to police, a large number of petty thieves descend in the Calangute-Candolim coastal belt to prey on unsuspecting tourists during the Christmas-New Year celebration week.
