Mumbai: Kid on street bins Rs 5 lakh gold given by mistake, rats pull it into drain – Times of India

MUMBAI: Bringing relief to a domestic help, police retrieved within 12 hours a pouch containing gold worth Rs 5 lakh that she had by mistaken given to a second-hand clothes vendor along with a bread packet in a plastic bag. The vendor’s child threw the bag in a bin in Goregaon. Police found the pouch with the jewellery intact in a nullah next to the bin. They suspect rats pulled the pouch down a drain.
On June 13 morning, Sundar Planibel (45), who lives in Aarey Colony, left home with 117gm of ornaments placed in a plastic box and then a pouch to mortgage them and clear loans taken for her daughter’s marriage. She first went to her workplace in Gokuldham Colony. “As she was leaving in the afternoon, her employer gave her a bread packet which she kept in the same bag,” Dindoshi police assistant inspector Suraj Sawant said.
As she was heading to the bank, she noticed a child with a woman vendor, and gave her the plastic bag with the bread in it, without realising that the gold ornaments too were in it.
Movement in bin helps police find woman’s Rs 5 lakh gold
Dindoshi police jumped into action and within 12 hours brought relief to a domestic help who “lost” a pouch containing gold jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh. Sundar Planibel (45) had by mistake given an old-clothes vendor and her child a plastic bag with the bread packet in it, without realising that she had kept gold ornaments too in it. She wanted to mortgage the ornaments and clear loans that she had taken for her daughter’s marriage. But it was only when she reached the bank, she realised her blunder.
She rushed back, but could not find the woman and child. She then approached Dindoshi police. “Police accompanied her to the spot and found a CCTV camera near Gokuldham Colony. In the footage, they saw the woman and child board an autorickshaw. It seems they threw the bag in the garbage bin,” zonal DCP Somnath Ghagre said. From locals, police managed to get the vendor’s elder son’s phone number. On reaching the nearby Motilal Nagar slum, police found out that she had left the place six months ago after her shanty was demolished. “After making enquiries, we traced her to the Prem Nagar area,” senior inspector Jeevan Kharat said. Police took the woman to the spot.
“We found the bread packet in the garbage bin, but not the pouch,” Kharat said. As Planibel refused to go home, cops called her husband to the police station at night and counselled her. “By then, we noticed another CCTV camera a few distance away. We checked its footage and noticed movement in one of the bags. The next morning, we returned to the spot and found the plastic box, but no gold. Then we called labourers who removed the nullah slab and found the pouch with the gold intact,” Kharat said. The gold has been returned to Planibel, who thanked the police team comprising Kharat, assistant inspector Suraj Raut, and constables Sachin Pote, Shankar Mahingade, Hemant Rode, Vilas Jadhav, and Sachin Kamble for their efforts.