Juhu police on Sunday detained a 17-year-old boy for allegedly stealing valuables worth Rs 21 lakh from a businessman’s house in the western suburbs. The police said the accused, who has been involved in crimes before, had found a safe place, a manhole, to hide his stolen goods.
The police added that an incident of house break-in had recently taken place at Nehru Nagar in Juhu. The complainant, Pooja Devendra, who had gone to Mahabaleshwar along with her family saw that the house was ransacked with valuables missing after she returned on February 5.
“The minor had broken the grill and entered the house. He knew that the family was not at home, so accordingly, he hatched a plan, went inside the house and walked away with gold and silver worth Rs 21 lakh,” said an officer. A case under relevant sections of the IPC has been registered.
During the course of the investigation, the police received a tip-off that a boy from Nehru Nagar is throwing a party. He had ordered a crate of beer and invited his friends. “He is jobless and class-IX drop out. His father is a Tempo driver. We knew that he could not have afforded it,” said assistant inspector Hiralal Biradkar.
On the basis of suspicion, the officials on Sunday took him to the police station for interrogation. The boy confessed to his crime, the police added.
As the investigators had to recover the valuables – 440gm gold and 460gm silver stolen from the complainant’s house – they initially went to his house in search of the ornaments but could not find any.
“Later, the boy told us that he had hidden the ornaments in a gutter near his house,” said senior inspector Shashikant Mane. The minor would often steal mobile phones and hide it inside the gutter, the police added.
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“He would open a manhole cover, keep the valuables there and cover it,” said an officer, adding that the boy had come up the idea as his parents would have enquired had he taken the valuables home.
“The boy was aware that the police, after detaining him, would search his house, but nobody would look inside the manhole,” said Biradkar.
After the minor spoke about the manhole, the police went there along with him and recovered the stolen items. The boy was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and later handed over to his parents. As he is addicted to drugs, the boy has been lodged at a rehab centre.
