DECEMBER 23: Apart from commonality of cause, three burglars recently discovered, a common name too comes in handy. So, all three adopted the same name - Rajesh.

But that's just about all they had in common. They never worked together (except for once, which was their biggest mistake). All three had distinctly different styles of functioning. And worst, they also had three different police informants tailing them.

The result: Investigators for past many months were looking for one Rajesh for a series of robberies, when there were three Rajeshs involved. When the police came across reports of three burglaries that had taken place simultaneously at three different places in a single night, they were taken aback. Their informants added to the shock when they all filed reports saying that one Rajesh was involved in each robbery. ``It was not only difficult but impossible for a thief to break into three houses at the same time and walk away undetected. We were told that Rajesh had been involved in all of them,'' a police sub-inspector from Goregaon police station said.Only when the police changed their line of inquiry and thought there must be at least three Rajeshs did they make some headway.

However, the burglars' good fortune didn't last long. After increased police vigilance and failure to pull off a burglary for some time, the trio, for once, decided to break into a house together. This change of plan doomed their fate. When they broke into a house at Vivekananda Housing Society after midnight, the Goregaon police, acting on a tip-off, immediately swooped down on them and arrested them. The three, who are in the age group of 18-20 years, live in slums near Goregaon station. They were identified as Maria Dhotre, Papa Keshav Solanki and Lingappa Rajan. Police say for a long time, during their interrogation, each of them maintained he was Rajesh.Said senior police inspector of Goregaon police station, N M Dhengale, ``The trio, who were active since the last one year, have confessed to seven burglaries so far, and we're making further investigations about their involvement in other cases.'' Dhengale also said valuables worth Rs 2.5 lakh have been recovered from them. They were found in possession of a computer, a fan, a colour television, a water filter, a few cameras and some other expensive items.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.