Mumbai: In a major success ahead of the festive season, the Mumbai Police recovered 1,464 stolen and lost mobile phones worth over Rs 3.22 crore from various parts of the city and returned them to their rightful owners on Thursday, October 16. The large-scale recovery drive was a coordinated effort by Zones 3, 4, and 5 of the Mumbai Police, supported by CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register) portal operators, cyber officers and crime detection teams.

A video of the special program organised to return the stolen phones has gone viral on the internet. According to officials, Zone 3 recovered 356 phones, including 62 from Tardeo, 80 from Nagpada, 48 from Agripada, 61 from Byculla, 55 from Worli, and 50 from N.M. Joshi Marg police stations.

Zone 4 accounted for 448 phones, traced from stations such as Bhoiwada (72), Kalachowki (48), Matunga (79), R.A.K. Marg (58), Sion (69), Antop Hill (61), and Wadala T.T. (61). The highest recovery came from Zone 5, which retrieved 660 phones from Dadar (138), Shivaji Park (113), Mahim (88), Shahunagar (70), Dharavi (97), Kurla (108) and V.B.A. Nagar (46).

In addition to the phones, valuables such as gold, silver, and other ornaments worth Rs 21.87 lakh were also returned to citizens. The handover ceremony was held under the guidance of the Additional Commissioner of Police, Central Regional Division, and attended by DCPs from Zones 3, 4 and 5.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Mumbai Police’s DCP Zone 12 had also returned valuables worth Rs 3.89 crore to citizens as part of a similar initiative. “A special Diwali return gift!” the police wrote in a post on X, announcing the recovery of 2.25 kg of gold jewelry, 2 buses, 7 auto-rickshaws, 13 motorcycles, 4 laptops, and 689 mobile phones. The operation covered multiple police stations, including Dahisar, Kasturba Marg, Samta Nagar, Kurar, Dindoshi, Vanrai and Aarey.

Mumbai: The Santacruz police have arrested a 31-year-old operations manager, Dinath Shetty, for allegedly embezzling Rs1.23 crore from Banana Leaf, a popular restaurant chain. Dinath, who managed five branches of the restaurant, was apprehended in Mangaluru and brought to Mumbai on a transit remand on October 15.

According to the FIR, Suraj Shetty, director of Malgudi Foods, which operates Banana Leaf restaurants across India, filed a complaint against Dinath in September 2024. As operations manager, Dinath was entrusted with overseeing accounts, rental agreements, procurement of goods, and equipment for the restaurant’s five branches. The FIR alleges that between January 9, 2024, and May 1, 2024, Dinath siphoned off over a crore while working at the Juhu Tara Road branch in Santacruz West. At the time, he resided in Mira Road East.

Following the registration of the case, Dinath went off the grid, switching off his mobile phone, halting banking transactions, and ceasing social media activity to evade detection. The breakthrough in the case came when the Santacruz police obtained a CIBIL TransUnion report, which revealed that Dinath had taken loans from at least 10 banks, including a car loan. Using the car’s registration number, the police traced the vehicle to Mangaluru, where it had been flagged for traffic violations.

With assistance from the Mangaluru police, a team led by investigation officer Sarad Jadhav, under the supervision of crime police inspector Chandrakant Kamble and senior police inspector Yogesh Shinde, conducted a two-day operation in Mangaluru. Their efforts culminated in Dinath’s arrest, and he was subsequently brought to Mumbai for a three-day transit remand.

Mumbai: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials have apprehended municipal commissioner of Jalna in a bribery case, officials said on Friday. The accused public servant has been identified as Santosh Khandekar (48).

According to the ACB, the complainant, who is a contractor had claimed that the Commissioner and Administrator of Jalna Municipal Corporation Santosh Khandekar had taken Rs 40 lakh from the contractor to issue work order and approve the payment of the works.

Technical approval has been received for the construction of CC road and DP road from Valmik Nagar (Gandhinagar) bridge to Ring Road and its tender amount is Rs 2.90 crore excluding GST. The work order for the said work has been issued and the said work has been completed within the given time and the running payment of Rs 2.82 crore has been submitted for approval. Out of the said payment, Rs 1.92 crore has been received and the remaining Rs 90 lakh is yet to be received, ACB officials said.

“To release the remaining Rs90 lakh Khandekar l asked the complainant to come to his government residence on Thursday with Rs 20 lakh, but since the complainant did not want to pay the money, he appeared before ACB office at Jalna and filed a written complaint. Based on the said complaint, on Thursday, at around 19.35 pm, a trap was laid and Santosh Khandekar, Municipal Commissioner, Jalna, was caught while accepting bribe of Rs 10 lakh from the complainant,” the ACB claimed in a statement.

Khandekar was detained by Jalna Deputy Superintendent of Police, ACB, B. S. Jadhwar.