Groom-to-be steals to fund his wedding, arrested from wedding hall

After robbing diamond jewellery worth Rs 14 lakh and Rs 10,000 in cash from a train, he sold the loot for Rs 2 lakh and used the cash to buy a sofa-cum-bed, a refrigerator, a cupboard, a TV set, a table and jewellery.

There was quite a stir at a wedding venue in Bihar recently, when cops picked up a groom-to-be on the eve of his marriage, straight from the hall.

The man had stolen diamond jewellery worth Rs 14 lakh and Rs 10,000 in cash from a Surat-bound train on January 28 and used the ill-gotten gains to make purchases for his own wedding.

The cops, after making the arrest, not only dragged the man away from the marriage hall, but also towed a tempo full of objects with them, including a sofa-cum-bed, refrigerator, cupboard, TV set, table and jewellery.

In January, a case was registered by Nirmala Bhagumati Hemantkumar Singh, a resident of Hyderabad, who was also travelling on the Secunderabad-Rajkot Express, which passes through Secunderabad, Pune, Karjat, Kalyan and Vasai. In her complaint, she said that her bag, containing diamond jewellery and cash worth R10,000, had gone missing from the train. “Initially, a complaint was lodged with Surat Railway Police. The victim was on her way to attend a marriage ceremony. After alighting from the train, she realised her bag was missing. The case was later transferred to Dombivli GRP, as the bag went missing in their jurisdiction,” said Rupali Khairmode Ambure, deputy commissioner of GRP, Central region. The railway Crime Branch then started investigations in the case, at the behest of GRP Commissioner Prabhat Kumar. “We learnt that two mobiles were also missing, and through them, traced the accused, who was identified as Shatrudhan Naval Sharma (22). We learnt that on March 17, the accused was to get married in Bihar, in the district of Sitamarhi. On March 16, we picked him up from the marriage function,” said Devram D Wadmare, senior police inspector of GRP Crime Branch. A police team picked up the man from his marriage hall, and interrogated him. He admitted to having stolen the paraphernalia of his wedding with the money he had stolen from the train. The police officers immediately booked a tempo and took the sofa-cum-bed, cupboard, refrigerator, table, jewellery and television set with them, which the accused had purchased. “We have arrested Sharma, who, with his friend Jeetraj Jaiswal, had sold the diamond jewellery to a jeweller in Bhiwandi, identified as Rajesh Jain,” said Wadmare. The police have arrested Sharma, Jaiswal and Jain. They have also recovered the diamond jewellery, but could not recover the Rs 10,000 in cash, and so seized all the things that the accused had bought for his marriage. “The jeweller cheated the accused. Though it was diamond jewellery, he told the accused that it was the much cheaper American diamond, and paid him Rs 2 lakh for it. The accused decided to get married with the cash. We will auction the items with the permission of the court and pay back Singh,” added Wadmare.

The accused
Sharma (22) has around five cases of baglifting lodged against him. A resident of Bhiwandi, he is a native of Bihar. He was tying the knot with a woman from Bhiwandi. The accused had lied to his bride-to-be that he worked with a private company. Sharma was in jail in 2012.

Courtesy: Mid-Day