MUMBAI: A 23-year-old man was arrested 24 hours after he allegedly posed as a patient, threatened a 70-year-old doctor at her clinic on Peddar Road at knife-point and escaped with her gold chain worth Rs 1 lakh on Thursday.
Gamdevi police said the accused left behind a diary which had a note written in Hindi saying that he was desperate for Rs 2 lakh due to family issues and was sorry for his actions.
The accused, Arjun Sonkar, who works with a food delivery app, was traced to his Worli room and arrested on Friday afternoon.
In her police complaint, Dr Mandakini Pirankar said that when she reached her clinic on the sixth floor at Doctor House on Thursday around 12.30pm, she noticed a masked man walking behind her. He introduced himself as Avinash Paswan and said he wanted to see her as he was feeling unwell. Dr Pirnakar opened her clinic and called him in. As his blood pressure reading was not normal, she advised him to get admitted to Nair hospital and wrote him a reference note. When she told him that her fee was Rs 300, the man said he had only Rs 200 on him and she accepted it, said police.
The man walked to the door, looked outside and then suddenly ran back inside the clinic, Dr Pirankar said in her complaint. He pushed her from her chair to the floor, pulled out a 7.5-inch sharp knife from his plastic bag and held it to her neck. He warned her against calling for help, snatched her 2.5 tola gold chain and fled. “As soon as the doctor regained her composure, she came out and screamed for help. Neighbours then alerted Gamdevi police,” said a police officer.
Police seized the plastic bag, knife and diary lying on the clinic floor. From the CCTV footage of the area, the probe team – led by DCP Mohit Garg and comprising senior inspector Vivek Bhonsle, inspectors Vishal Raje and Dhushyant Chavan, assistant police inspector Shrinivas Darade and head constables Rajan Parab, Narendra Kamble, Rohan Koli, Abhijit Jadhav, Shailesh Kadam and Vivek Todankar – found that the man ran out of Doctor House towards Bhulabhai Desai Road and boarded a bus near Kem-ps Corner. He then took a train from Grant Road station, got off at Mahalaxmi station and walked to his room in Wo-rli. He was tracked down and arrested. During interrogation, Sonkar allegedly admitted to the crime. “We have recovered Rs 16,000 from him,” said the officer.
Sonkar, police said, had migrated to the city from Uttar Pradesh six months ago and landed a job with the food delivery app. The arrested accused has been booked under the IPC Section 392 for robbery. He will be produced before a local court on Saturday.
Gamdevi police said the accused left behind a diary which had a note written in Hindi saying that he was desperate for Rs 2 lakh due to family issues and was sorry for his actions.
The accused, Arjun Sonkar, who works with a food delivery app, was traced to his Worli room and arrested on Friday afternoon.
In her police complaint, Dr Mandakini Pirankar said that when she reached her clinic on the sixth floor at Doctor House on Thursday around 12.30pm, she noticed a masked man walking behind her. He introduced himself as Avinash Paswan and said he wanted to see her as he was feeling unwell. Dr Pirnakar opened her clinic and called him in. As his blood pressure reading was not normal, she advised him to get admitted to Nair hospital and wrote him a reference note. When she told him that her fee was Rs 300, the man said he had only Rs 200 on him and she accepted it, said police.
The man walked to the door, looked outside and then suddenly ran back inside the clinic, Dr Pirankar said in her complaint. He pushed her from her chair to the floor, pulled out a 7.5-inch sharp knife from his plastic bag and held it to her neck. He warned her against calling for help, snatched her 2.5 tola gold chain and fled. “As soon as the doctor regained her composure, she came out and screamed for help. Neighbours then alerted Gamdevi police,” said a police officer.
Police seized the plastic bag, knife and diary lying on the clinic floor. From the CCTV footage of the area, the probe team – led by DCP Mohit Garg and comprising senior inspector Vivek Bhonsle, inspectors Vishal Raje and Dhushyant Chavan, assistant police inspector Shrinivas Darade and head constables Rajan Parab, Narendra Kamble, Rohan Koli, Abhijit Jadhav, Shailesh Kadam and Vivek Todankar – found that the man ran out of Doctor House towards Bhulabhai Desai Road and boarded a bus near Kem-ps Corner. He then took a train from Grant Road station, got off at Mahalaxmi station and walked to his room in Wo-rli. He was tracked down and arrested. During interrogation, Sonkar allegedly admitted to the crime. “We have recovered Rs 16,000 from him,” said the officer.
Sonkar, police said, had migrated to the city from Uttar Pradesh six months ago and landed a job with the food delivery app. The arrested accused has been booked under the IPC Section 392 for robbery. He will be produced before a local court on Saturday.
