cellphone thief

Faisal Iqbal Shaikh

The accused was waiting for his case to be heard at the sessions court; slipped away after he couldn't resist flicking the handset of the court stenographerAn alleged serialwas nabbed by the cops after he stole a mobile while waiting for his court hearing and slipped away. Police said the accused,, a suspect in several cases of cellphone theft, was waiting for his case to be heard at the Thane sessions court on Wednesday when he approached court stenographer Nandini Purarkar, 44.Shaikh repeatedly asked her how long it would take before his case came up for hearing, but Purarkar told him to wait for his turn, cops said. Shaikh spotted Purarkar’s cellphone in a corner and, making sure no one was watching, allegedly pocketed the phone and slipped away. When Shaikh’s case finally came up for hearing, he was nowhere to be found.Purarkar only realised that her cellphone was missing during the lunch break. She tried dialling the number but found it switched off. Purarkar immediately approached the Thane Nagar police and told them her suspicions about Shaikh. The cops summoned Shaikh’s lawyer and instructed him to call Shaikh, who answered the phone. Shaikh told his lawyer he was going home and would meet him in court at the next hearing.The cops turned up at Shaikh’s home in Mumbra and questioned his father, who told them that Shaikh visits Mumbra railway station every evening to sell stolen phones. The police nabbed Shaikh after laying a trap for him at the railway station and recovered two cellphones from him, including the one belonging to the stenographer.Senior Inspector Mandar Dharmadhikari, Thane Nagar Police Station said, “The accused has been arrested. We recovered two mobile phones from him.”