The burglars were caught on closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage as they fled in an auto-rickshaw waiting on Veera Desai Road in Andheri (West) on Wednesday midnight.Amboli police, who retrieved the CCTV footage, are analysing it to obtain clear images of the thieves who sped away with the stolen locker.
Actor Anupam Kher tweeted: “Last night in my Veera Desai Road office two thieves broke two doors of my office and the whole safe from the Accounts Department (which probably couldn’t break) and negative of a film produced by our company which was in a box, stole. Our office has got an FIR done. And police have assured thieves will be caught very soon. Because CCTV is seen sitting in an auto with both the luggage. May God give them wisdom. This video was made by my officers before the police came!”
Kher expressed his distress over the theft of the film negative, which he had stored in a bag inside the locker. The actor has been operating the three-room office on the first floor for the past 30 years. “The break-in was discovered by one of my office staff on Thursday morning, who found the main door broken and the locker missing. I am upset as the thieves have stolen my film’s negative which I had kept in a bag. Police have assured that they will apprehend the thieves soon,” Kher told TOI.
The burglary was noticed by staff member Vilas Sangu, who informed the actor’s accountant, Pravin Patil (59), about the incident at 9:35 am on Thursday. Kher visited the office, and a case was subsequently registered. According to the complaint filed by Patil, the locker contained Rs4.15 lakh in cash for daily expenses, and the thieves also stole the locker itself, worth Rs2000, along with a bag and a brown bag, each valued at Rs1000, in which the actor had stored the film’s negative. “I closed the office on Wednesday at 9 pm after keeping the cash in the locker. The break-in occurred at midnight,” Patil told the cops.