TOMATOES have brought tears to the eyes of the general public, with prices sky-rocketing to Rs 100-120 per kilogram. Eyeing an opportunity to making money without an investment, a history-sheeter thought of stealing tomatoes and selling them to make money.
Police arrested Chandrashekhar Radheshyam Gupta (54) who had made away with 60 crates of tomatoes worth Rs 60,000 of a vegetable vendor in Dahisar east in July. Dahisar police have arrested him from Kurla on Tuesday. “Gupta is a history-sheeter who had stolen dozens of bananas from Chembur in 2015. He was arrested and later released on bail,” said Vasant Pingale, senior inspector of Dahisar police station.
Being a perishable item, the police could not recover the tomatoes but the crates and other belongings have been recovered from Gupta. The officer said that Gupta had brought a tempo with him on July 18 and stolen 30 crates of tomatoes from the vegetable market in Avinash compound in Dahisar east.
The victim Jagat Srivastava (43) in his complaint had written that he had unloaded the crates of tomatoes outside a godown and gone home. When he returned to the market, all the crates with tomatoes were missing. Srivastava had registered a case of theft against an unknown person. The then senior inspector of Dahisar police station Subhash Sawant had said that various teams have been formed and the investigators are taking the help of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras to arrest the thief.
The incident had come to light when the price of one kilogram of tomato had skyrocketed to Rs 100 per kilogram. The police had formed various teams to nab the thief. Gupta has been booked under theft case (379) and was produced before court that has sent him into police custody till August 18. The police said more arrests in the case are likely soon.