DECEMBER 23: IT wasn't the needle of suspicion. It was the label of a dress. But it pointed in the right direction.

On November 30, when gold and diamonds worth nearly eight lakh and cash worth Rs 72,000 were found missing from a businessman's flat at Mantaramani's Apartments, P D Hinduja Marg, Khar (west), police had no idea who could have done such a clean job - the apartment is protected by a professional security agency. For some time there was no clue, but the police finally managed to lay their hands on a pair of salwar kameez abandoned by the robber before fleeing.

Close examination revealed that the garment had been manufactured by Paridhar Garments, Panvel. The owner of the Panvel unit said the dress had indeed been made at his unit, but he couldn't remember where it had been sold. The sale, he said, had taken place three years ago.

Panvel police, however, recollected a case that had taken place in 1996. The modus operandi used then perfectly matched the one in the present case. The name of the accused in the '96 was Anita. But the Khar businessman didn't know anybody by that name. What he told the police was that a nineteen-year-old girl named Kavita had been employed by him two days before the robbery took place, and the girl had vanished after November 30. Police found that the description of the girl involved in the Panvel case fitted that of the girl who worked with the businessman. The connection between the two cases was further strengthened when the police prepared a sketch of the wanted girl.

``It was now confirmed that the girl involved in the Khar case had earlier committed a similar crime at Dadar and Panvel in 1996,'' R Chougle, a member of the detection squad, said. A police team under the supervision of senior inspector Feroze Ganjia was soon despatched to the girl's present address at Versoli in Raigad district and her native place Malevad near Sawantwadi. The addresses were obtained from her brother. The sleuths also stumbled upon a money order receipt which mentioned that she would be arriving at her native place on December 18.

A dragnet was spread and policemen were posted at both Versoli and Malevad. The trap worked. The girl was finally tracked down to her Versoli residence on Friday morning.

During interrogation, the girl revealed she had adopted two aliases, Kavita and Meenal, to elude the police. She also told them she had buried the stolen diamonds under a coconut tree in the backyard of her residence. Gold and Rs 42,000 in cash were also recovered from her, the police said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.