Colaba cops traced missing valuables of Sudan national within 24 hours

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Acting swiftly, Colaba cops traced missing valuables belonging to two Sudanese nationals within 24 hours. The foreign nationals had come to Mumbai on Wednesday evening but forgot his bag in a taxi while alighting at South Mumbai. Colaba cops inquired with more than 700 taxis to trace down the taxi in which valuables were kept.

Mohammed Abdul Yusuf Ali Hasan (22) and Abdul Rahun Basir Yakub (39) had come to Mumbai on a business trip. The men took a taxi in the evening of 17th July from Sahar Airport. The taxi reached Colaba around 8.30pm and the two men went to Sea View Hotel. Upon reaching the hotel, Mohammed realised that he has forgotten the bag containing money, his passport and some jackets. Worried, the men ran downstairs to check if the taxi was still around but they didn't find it. Then, the two went to Colaba police station after the hotel authorities asked them to.

A missing complaint was registered and was handed over by Senior Inspector Vijay Dhopavkar to Police Sub Inspector Bhoi and Kakde. Both started questioning Sudan nationals. "We checked the footage of 25 CCTV cameras that were nstalled along the route that they travelled along and one of the cameras had clear image of the number plate, when the two men told the police that they travelled via the Bandra-Worli sea link, our men went to bridge and screened the footage." said an officer on condition of anonymity.

Colaba cops tracked the timing of their travelling and checked the footage at bridge accordingly, young Mohammed recognized the taxi which gave the cops their first lead. The cops then got the mobile number and address of the owner. A team was sent to Malad at the residence but found that owner had sold his home 7 years ago. "Nobody from his neighbourhood knew the whereabouts of the owner. We went to around 50 houses to get some clue, one resident told us that the owner had sent away his family and was living in his Taxi. They also said that he normally used to be stationed outside Sahar Airport," said another police officer.

The police then started questioning other taxi drivers at Sahar Airport, but none of the drivers knew about him. Finally, the cab driver picked up the call and incidentally, was on his way to Sahar Police station to return the bag.

"Driver was told to wait at Sahar Police station, cops who were at Airport went to police station and took the valuables from him." said Vijay Dhopavkar, Senior Inspector of Colaba police station. "The contained 2 passports, 10,000 Dubai Dinar (worth 1,87,000 ruppes), 2500 Euro ( worth 2,00,000 rupees), 700 American Dollars (worth 48,000 rupees) and two jackets." added Dhopavkar.

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