The Maninagar police in Ahmedabad has arrested a 35-year-old woman Babli Matadin and her daughter for stealing jewellery from marriage halls.
The police presented Babli Matadin before the metropolitan magistrate D I Patel, who granted a four day police remand, reports Ahmedabad Mirror.
Babli, originally from Kadia Japa village in Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh, would dress up her 10-year-old girl and drop her at marriage halls in different parts of the city.
The girl would then hoodwink the bride and groom's family and the guests, quietly pick up the jewellery, and stealthily walk out of the hall. Her mother would be waiting in a rickshaw and they would scoot.
On November 23, an advocate, Janak Bhatt's son Bhargav was holding a wedding reception at Balwantrai Thakore Hall at Pushpakunj in Maninagar. As the ceremony was in progress, around 3.30 pm, Babli's daughter noticed in one corner of the stage, gold and silver jewellery worth Rs 3.5 lakh placed in a pouch.
Babli's young daughter dressed in black T-shirt and black pyjamas, who had already sneaked into the hall by then, picked up the pouch and tried to walk out.
However, one person saw her making an exit with a pouch and raised an alarm. But by then she had already hopped into a rickshaw in which Babli was waiting, and escaped. The groom's family had managed to capture the girl on video. The next step was to take copies of the girl's photo and distribute it among friends and hand it over to the Maninagar police.
As luck would have it, one of Bhatt's friends recognised the girl at a marriage reception in Satellite. He immediately nabbed her.
Upon questioning, she said her mother had forced her into stealing jewellery from marriage halls. She was handed over to the Maninagar police.
A police team will be sent to Babli's native village in Madhya Pradesh to recover the stolen ornaments.
