Assistant Superintendent Police (Rural Thane) Shashikant Mahavarkar said, “As soon as the investigators reached the place where the robbery had taken place, the officers made it a point to ask the shop owners whether they had any CCTV camera which might have captured the images of the robbers. However, it was discovered that the camera was not activated on that day. We were surprised to know this and when we enquired further we came to know that the person who runs the shop is a relative of the owner and had forgotten to activate the camera that morning when he opened the shop.”

Mahavarkar further informed that the CCTV camera had been functional till the day before the robbery. When asked whether the police suspect any insider in the robbery, Mahavarkar said, “Initially, we had suspected the involvement of an insider as it was difficult to believe that the CCTV camera which is always activated was de-activated on the day of the robbery. However, when we questioned the owner, he said that the shop is run by people who are his family members and relatives and that he does not suspect anyone.”