Cops nab driver two months after he stole phone from minister's house

A driver working for Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare was arrested yesterday, two months after he stole a mobile phone that belonged to Tatkare's wife Vidya in July.

Crime scene: The phone was stolen from Meghdoot, the official residence of Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare (inset), at Malabar Hill. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Officials of the Malabar Hill police station said that tracing the accused would have been easier, had the minister taken down the details and kept a photograph of driver at the time of his appointment. The theft took place at Tatkare's official residence, Meghdoot, in Malabar Hill.

"Tatkare saheb's wife Vidya had kept her Samsung Galaxy Note, worth Rs 20,000, on the table at their residence, following which it went missing on July 7," said an official.

Following the theft, Vidya and telephone operator Deepak Jagtap approached the police and lodged a complaint against the unidentified. "During investigations, we learnt that along with the phone, a driver had also gone missing. Upon checking with the minister, we discovered that the family lacked the address or a photo of the driver. It was through his friends that we managed to trace his address at Ghodbunder Road in Thane. The accused was identified as Manoj Gagansingh Ukheda. But he wasn't at home when we raided it," said another official.

The police finally managed to nab Ukheda and learnt that he had given the phone to his sister, a resident of Wadala. "We have finally recovered the phone," the official said. u00a0