Two housekeeping staff at the Mumbai Airport named Snehal Gaikwad (27) and security guard Dayanand Bhable (37) were arrested for allegedly stealing 250 gm of gold dust and forcibly taking a gold ring from a woman flyer named Jumana Sadriwala (55) who had arrived from Dubai. The incident is believed to have happened at Terminal 2 of Mumbai AIrport.
The two employees had allegedly had held the woman flyer and her family friend captive for two hours in a toilet outside Mumbai International Airport on August 4, according to a police complaint lodged by the woman flyer from Vasai.
She arrived from Dubai on August 4 around 9 am. Sadriwala went to a toilet on the level near the arrival gate. As she stepped in, a pouch containing gold dust fell from her purse which was noticed by the housekeeping staffer.
“Suspecting her to be part of a gold smuggling gang, the housekeeping employee insisted that Sadriwala put the pouch in a bin inside the toilet. She then called a woman security guard to check of her purse,” said an officer of Sahar police station.
Sadriwala claimed that the gold dust she had in her purse is from an idol, and that she carries as a “matter of faith”.
The woman guard, after checking Sadriwala’s purse, called two other guards who took her to the P5 level where Vinod Yadav (36) was waiting for her. When Yadav asked them why they were being taken captive, the guards threatened to frame both of them. “Fearing unnecessary trouble, Yadav gave his gold ring to the guards who allowed us to go,” Sadriwala has said in her police complaint.
Sadriwala and Yadav later submitted a written complaint at Sahar police station. Based on the complaint, DCP (Zone VIII) Dikshit Gedam supervised a team comprising Sahar police senior inspector Sanjay Govilkar, inspector Mangesh Borse, sub-inspector Sunil Yetam – who retrieved CCTV footage and found the two employees committing the offence.
The two were booked for wrongful confinement, theft, and extortion. “Sadriwala said after the two guards took her and Yadav to the P5 level parking lot they demanded Rs 50,000. After being threatened to be framed in a case, she said they agreed to pay through an online transfer which the guards refused. They then took Yadav’sgold ring before allowing them to leave and this has been captured on CCTV cameras,” said an officer.
The pouch of gold dust was missing from the bin where they were told to put it.