Elderly turns sleuth to nab man who robbed his home

By Krishna Kumar in Mumbai

BABA Ghatkar may look like just another senior citizen. But, the 69- year- old retired engineer is a man criminals ought to not mess with. Not one to take things lying down, Ghatkar beat the police in the pursuit of the man who robbed his house.

On November 21 last year, notorious burglar Munna alias Salim Khan, with more than 100 cases against him in several states, broke into Ghatkar’s house while the latter was away, walking off with a kilo and a half of silver, some cash and his ATM card.

While Ghatkar immediately reported the theft to the Worli police, he also began a probe of his own. His first breakthrough came when Munna used his card to withdraw ` 30,000 from an ATM in Vashi. Ghatkar alerted the police and with their help, got the bank to furnish CCTV footage from the ATM to identify the accused.

“ The ATM card was stolen along with the document that had its PIN number,” Ghatkar explained.

On a hunch that the burglar might be a history- sheeter, Ghatkar reached out to police officers from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane, and began perusing newspapers for reports of theft.

His efforts paid off when he came across a report about the Pune police arresting a gang of robbers, one of whom he found resembled Munna. “ I told Pune Crime Branch officials about the man’s resemblance with the one who burgled my home. I emailed them the pictures, and they confirmed that he was, in fact, the same man,” Ghatkar said.

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