Night-Long Hunt For VVIP Son’s Mobile Phone

When Vinod Khanna’s son’s cell phone was stolen by a cabbie, almost the entire Mumbai police spent a night to recover it!

Have you ever had your cell phone stolen and seen the cops act as if you were wasting their time by bothering to lodge a complaint? If the answer is yes, this story is going to make you angry, very angry.

<<Saakshi, son (on left) of MP Vinod Khanna (on right). Is Saakshi a boy or a girl or....>>

Close to 2,000 cops spent the entire Sunday night hunting for a cabbie who had stolen an expensive mobile phone belonging to member of Parliament and yesteryear actor Vinod Khanna's son, Saakshi. Nakabandis were put in place across south Mumbai and the suburbs and a message was flashed to all police stations and patrolling vehicles. The taxi's owner was traced in no time and the mobile was recovered from the cabbie's house in Behrampada, Bandra (east) on Monday afternoon.

But, here is the best part. All this was done without Vinod Khanna lodging a formal complaint with the Malabar Hill police station, under whose jurisdiction the theft took place.

Saakshi attended a party in the suburbs on Sunday night. It was almost mid-night when he returned home to his father's apartment at Al Palazo building at Malabar Hill. Even as he was fishing for cash in his wallet, the cabbie sped off. While he was first completely befuddled by the cabbie's behaviour, he soon realised that he had forgotten his phone in the taxi. He alerted his father, who took him to the Malabar Hill police station. A VVIP visiting the police station had the desired effect — the entire police station was soon buzzing with activity. Mumbai police's control room was alerted, which in turn alerted all police stations and patrolling vehicles and called for nakabandis.

Luck also favoured them. When the taxi carrying Saakshi entered El Palazo building, the alert security guard had noted down the taxi number. The number was flashed on wireless and a city-wide hunt was on. In the meantime, a parallel team from the Malabar Hill police station had established contact with the RTO and dug out the taxi owner's address. The taxi owner, Tahir Khan Hasanbhai, led the cops to the taxi driver's house. While the cabby, Gulzar Sheikh, was not in the house, his parents confirmed he had brought home an expensive phone. The handset was restored to Saakshi in the afternoon. Vinod Khanna could not be contacted. His wife Kavita refused to comment saying, “It’s a private matter and I don't think it merits any news (coverage).”

DCP zone II Pratap Dig-havkar said, “It’s a big achievement. We traced the phone in no time.” When asked if they would have worked equally hard for a common man’s phone, Dighavkar said, “Every citizen is a VVIP for us.”