Mumbai: He scurried away undetected for months but was undone by an Aadhaar update. A habitual burglar, Rafiq Chand Shaikh (38), who went by the moniker ‘Chuha’ (mouse) for the ease with which he could enter homes, was arrested from his Nalasopara residence recently for allegedly decamping with over Rs 9 lakh from two homes in Andheri in just a month.DN Nagar police in Andheri said he fled eight months ago to his daughter’s home in Gujarat and shunned all digital devices to evade arrest but returned last week to get his Aadhaar updated as part of a slum rehab project.Shaikh first allegedly stole gold ornaments and cash worth Rs 4.8 lakh from the house of an Andheri homemaker on Dec 20, 2025, and then pilfered gold ornaments and cash collectively worth Rs 4.3 lakh from another house in Andheri West in Jan. Shaikh claimed the stolen booty was used to fund his daughter’s wedding, said a police officer.Police said that on the instructions of senior officers to track down absconders in old cases, DCP (west zone-2) Mohit Garg supervised a team that included senior inspector Sachin Gawas, inspector Sachin Kondre and SI Jivan Dhoipode.An informant alerted the team that Shaikh returned to his Nalasopara home on Aug 4. “The team asked Shaikh’s wife to call him without giving him a hint about cops’ presence in the house.” When he arrived, the team nabbed him. “When we asked him his name, he simply said he was ‘Chuha”,” said the officer.During Shaikh’s custody from Aug 4-8, police recovered gold ornaments worth Rs 4.6 lakh that he had stolen in the two cases.
