Duo forget Rs 4.5L in cab, retrieved in 24hrs

Mumbai: The Colaba police tracked down a cab driver within 24 hours after two Sudanese nationals lodged a complaint stating that they had forgotten their cash around Rs 4.5 lakh, passports and jackets in it while travelling to south Mumbai from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Andheri.

The driver was tracked down with the help of taxi’s registration number obtained through CCTV footage. The police said that the Sudanese nationals had come on a business trip.

The officials said that Abdul Rahim Yakub (39) and Mohammad Yusuf Al-Hasan (22) came to Mumbai late on Tuesday. They hired a cab from the airport’s taxi stand for Sea View hotel in Colaba.

The duo alighted at Colaba and forgot to take their luggage including 10,000 dinars, 2500 Euros, 700 USD and two jackets.

“The cabbie had left with the valuables and the duo did not note the registration number. Subsequently, they approached Colaba police and registered a case. We scanned over 70 CCTV cameras but could not ascertain the taxi’s registration number,” said an officer of Colaba police.

The Sudanese duo later told police that they took the Worli Sea Link to come to south Mumbai. Subsequebntly, the officials approached the sea link security and scanned the footage to find the taxi with registration number MH02-BQ-9572.

The police later found that the cab driver was paying monthly installments for the vehicle at Merchantile Cooperative Bank. Subsequently, they located his address in Malad.

“The driver was detained briefly and was let off after the count of lost valuables was completed,” the officer from Colaba police station added.

The process was completed on Wednesday and the police returned the belongings to the duo.