Mumbai: 14 years after escaping law, ‘thief’ nabbed thanks to tattoo

A name and description of a tattoo Thatrsquos all the information the RAK Marg cops had about an accused who had been absconding for 14 years But after a sixmonth probe the indefatigable cops managed to nab the womanIn 2008 Manjula Angmuttu Devendra a 24yearold SionKoliwada resident got a job at an airconditioner sales office in Sewri On her second day she allegedly stole a blank cheque signed by her employer and left the office on the pretext of going out for lunchldquoManjula rushed to Abhyudaya Bank and cashed the cheque on which she wrote the name Vanita withdrawing R45000 When her employer got wind of this he registered an offence against her at the RAK Marg police station under IPC Sections 381 theft by worker 420 cheating 467 forgery of valuable security 468 forgery for the purpose of cheating 471 using forged document as genuinerdquo said an officer of the RAK Marg police stationManjula was arrested immediately and she spilled the beans Later she got bail but stopped attending hearings at the 13th Bhoiwada court which eventually pronounced her lsquoabscondingrsquo In May this year Kumud Kadam senior inspector of RAK Marg police station asked his externment cell incharge Assistant Police Inspector Mahesh Lamkhade to track the accused down Constable Narayan Kadam Ravindra Sable Neelima Adangle and Sushant Bankar formed a team and took up the tedious jobAlso Read Mumbai Woman helps cops arrest criminal sonldquoThe address given by the accused after her arrest was of a hutment in SionKoliwada which was found to be demolished She had claimed she had turned to crime to fund her fatherrsquos surgery but no such person was treated at Sion hospital according to the records She had also lied about the date of her marriage There was no picture of her in the police records Only one thing had been notedmdashshe had an lsquoOmrsquo tattoo on her right handrdquo said API Lamkhade The cops visited various spots inhabited by Tamiliansmdashincluding SionKoliwada Antop Hill Amar Mahal Nehru Nagar in Vile Parle and Dharavimdashbut to no availldquoWe then changed the mode of investigation We started looking for her mother Our constables visited these areas posing as government officials and claimed her mother had been allotted a flat During one such operation we obtained the numbers of relatives of the motherrdquo After establishing that the people were indeed relatives of Manjula the cops interrogated them and got the accusedrsquos mobile numberConstable Adangle posing as a post office employee then contacted Manjula claiming there was a parcel for her The accused fell for it and called constantly to inquire about the parcel She was then asked to collect the item near Crawford Market And this was where she was arrested on Wednesday afternoonldquoThe accused is very sharp She had changed her name and address and had made a new Aadhaar card Though she literally created a new identity her tattoo gave her away when she came to collect the parcelrdquo said API Lamkhade During the investigation she revealed her new name was Manju Selvakumar Nayar and that she was residing in Chirag Nagar GhatkoparldquoWhen she got married Manjula told her husband about the crime and he helped her to get a new identity She is now the mother of a boy Initially she claimed it was a case of mistaken identity but her tattoo was her undoing She was produced in court on Thursday where her bail plea was rejected and she has been sent to judicial custody till December 7rdquo said Kumud Kadam30Day in November when accused was arrested