(Representative Image)

MUMBAI: Thane police took the case of a 28-year-old woman seriously after learning that she had worn gold ornaments worth Rs 4.2 lakh before she went missing. Several gangs of chain-snatchers and robbers were rounded up until police found that she had eloped with her paramour. The duo was located in Dehradun and brought to Thane.

A senior officer from Kasarvadavli police station said, “The woman has a three-yearold son. Her son was crying inconsolably since she went missing and her husband was making the rounds of the police station, helping cops with whatever information he had. We thought some chain-snatchers had kidnapped her, so we began rounding up history-sheeters.”

Another police team simultaneously worked on her cell phone records. “The team found the last location of her phone was at Thane railway station. We found she was in touch with a number and was chatting frequently. Police kept the other number under surveillance too. But after a day, the other phone was switched off. By then, police had got the IMEI number and kept tracking the location,” said a police source.

Investigators found that seven to eight numbers were changed by both phones. It was clear the woman and the person with the other number were together, said police. “After a week’s surveillance, we found the two phones activated with new numbers in Dehradun. A Thane police team landed in Dehradun and found the woman with M Abdullah. The two were taken into custody in a case of breach of trust (the woman’s husband had filed a case after knowing her phone was switched on with a new number). Abdullah told police he met her five to six months back, and they fell in love and planned to elope. He first went to his house with the woman but his parents disapproved of their relationship. He then went to a relative’s house. They had planned to sell the jewellery and start a new life after getting married in Dehradun.

The duo was arrested for breach of trust. While the woman’s parents paid surety for her bail, Abdullah is in jail.

