Lokhandwala family escapes with money of paying guest

The Oshiwara police early on Tuesday arrested an estate agent who fled with cash and valuables worth Rs16 lakh belonging to his paying guest, an airhostess.

Mehmood Khan told the police that his estate agency was running in loss due to which he decided to decamp with his paying guest’s

belongings. Khan also told the police he needed money, as his wife was pregnant.
According to the police, complainant Ritu Sachdeva stayed along with Khan, his wife Ria and daughter Mannat at his Lokhandwala residence. Last week she went to Delhi to celebrate Diwali with her parents. When she returned to Mumbai on Sunday, she discovered that the house was empty.

“She tried to call Khan on his cellphones but he had switched them off,” said police inspector Dattatray Sankhe. Sachdeva then approached the police and lodged a complaint.

During investigation, the police caught hold of the tempo driver who was hired by Khan to shift the furniture and other belongings and accordingly laid a trap at Madh in Malad where the tempo driver had dropped the belongings.

Khan told the police that he was aware that Sachdeva, who also worked as a model and acted in small-budget films, had kept Rs15 lakh cash in her room along with costly jewellery. Therefore when Sachdeva left for Delhi, he decamped with her belongings.
The police have recovered Rs13.5 lakh and are interrogating Khan. The Lokhandwala residence in which Khan stayed was rented by him and thus the police assumed that he might have taken away the things after the owner asked him to do so.

“We earlier registered a case of criminal breach of trust as it was not sure if Khan had stolen the things. However we have now taken a case of theft after Khan said that he took away her money and belongings as he needed money,” said Sankhe.