The Shahunagar police have cracked three cases in as many days. On Tuesday, they nabbed a 19-year-old youth from Mira Road. He had allegedly robbed a flat at Railway Colony in Matunga area last November. On Wednesday they apprehended a thief who was trying to make away with a gold necklace from a jewellery shop in Dharavi and on Thursday, a police team that had gone to Uttar Pradesh returned with a former employee of a garment shop who had allegedly fled with 465 pairs of jeans last December.

This comes as a morale booster for the police officials who are under pressure to find the culprits in the murder of Kanwaljeet Oberoi, the son of a railway employee murdered at Matunga Railway quarters last December.

“A week before the break-in and murder at the Oberoi residence, unidentified robbers had broken into another house in the same complex. We arrested the 19-year-old who had broken into the house of railway engineer Hepzur Mohammed Rahim and stolen a couple of cell-phones and some cash. Based on the EMEI numbers we traced the phones and arrested him from Mira Road. He had served a yearlong jail term in a Khar offence and had been released in October. Hardly a month later he resumed his profession again,” said assistant inspector Sadanand Lohar. “Pressure is mounting on us to solve the Oberoi case and the arrest of the youth does throw up a clue,” added Lohar.

A day after the arrest of the youth, the cops caught Abdul Rehman Aziz Sheikh, said to be a seasoned criminal. “Sheikh, posing as a customer, entered Mahalakshmy Jewellers at Dharavi on Wednesday. He grabbed a necklace and ran out. The shopkeepers immediately notified us and our personnel in a police van nearby followed him and nabbed him,” added Lohar. Sheikh was listed on the police records for robbery and extortion and had been released from jail a fortnight back, said Lohar.