Scared bus thief nabbed after 2-hour ‘rescue op’

MUMBAI: A runaway bus, a panicked thief, and a two-hour standoff in a nullah – there was high drama in Sion on Saturday morning.
It all began when Dashrath Bamane was washing the school buses he owned near the Ghatkopar BEST bus depot at 9 am on Saturday. His buses served Swami Vivekanand High School and Junior College in Chembur. “We were cleaning the buses to perform the pooja on account of Vijayadashami (Dussehra), when we noticed one of them moving. It was proceeding towards Sion via the Eastern Express Highway,” recalled Bamane.
Startled, and even a little spooked, Bamane realised “something was wrong”. So he and a couple of colleagues jumped into a car and started chasing the runaway bus. “Since the bus had a GPS tracker fitted to it, we were able to follow it closely. Simultaneously, we reported the incident to the police control room,” he continued.
After pursuing it for 7 km, Bamane intercepted the stolen vehicle on the Sewri-Chembur road, near Anik BEST bus depot in Sion. The last thing he expected was to see his quarry, a young man, open the door and leap into a nullah, an impulsive attempt to evade capture.
The real drama was only just beginning. As the thief flailed about in the murky water, police teams closed in on him – one from the Wadala Truck Terminus police and another from the Antop Hill traffic police. A team from the Mumbai Fire Department also arrived at the site.
Cornered but frightened, the thief wouldn’t budge. The crowd swelled and locals joined the police in an operation that took a solid two hours. “We tried convincing him to climb out but he refused. Finally, we decided to send some locals into the nullah,” said a police officer. “When he realised he was cornered, the thief started to emerge and we caught him,” he added.
“The accused has been identified as Mitu Das, 23, who originally hails from Assam but was living in the Andheri MIDC area. We have handed him over to Pant Nagar police, where the theft was committed,” said a police officer with the Wadala TT police station.
According to Rajesh Kevale, senior police inspector of the Pant Nagar police, “We prima facie suspect his motive was theft. He seems to belong to a gang and is under investigation. We suspect he was to hand over the bus to someone else.” The police are in the process of registering the case as theft.