MUMBAI: Airport authorities and police have failed to find a solution to the rise in thefts of valuables, mobile phones and baggage belonging to passengers at Mumbai’s domestic and international airports.Since 2024, more than a dozen thefts have reportedly occurred at the city’s two airports, but not a single case has been solved and no thief has been caught.In the latest case, registered on August 10, a homemaker from Chennai flew back to Mumbai a week after discovering that her valuables had been stolen at Mumbai airport.The complaint was filed at Sahar police station as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport falls under its jurisdiction. The Chennai resident alleged that two gold earrings, a gold ring with a floral design and a silver anklet, collectively valued at Rs 49,000, were stolen after she checked in her baggage and boarded her flight.“On reaching Chennai, I checked my baggage and found the valuables missing. I went to Chennai Airport and reviewed the entire CCTV footage, which showed that there had been no tampering with my bag. After that, I became convinced that an unknown person had stolen two pairs of earrings, a ring and anklets from my baggage without my consent at Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport,” Hajira Abutahir (36) said in the FIR.Abutahir, a resident of Chennai, had visited Mumbai’s Dharavi locality on July 18 after her brother Abdulrazzak welcomed a baby boy. “I stayed at my maternal home for a few days. On July 29, at 7 pm, I left Dharavi in my brother’s car and reached Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 8.40 pm. I deposited my grey suitcase and a black bag at the Air India check-in counter. I kept another black bag with me. The checked-in baggage was to be collected by me at Chennai International Airport. One black bag contained a plastic box with a necklace, two pairs of earrings and a ring. Another plastic box contained silver anklets. However, the following valuables were stolen at Mumbai airport after the bags were handed over for loading into the aircraft’s cargo hold,” she said in the FIR.After discovering the theft, Abutahir flew back to Mumbai and filed a complaint against an unidentified person at Sahar police station on August 10. She alleged that the valuables were stolen at Terminal 2 after her bags had been checked in and loaded into the cargo section.The theft was reported a week after a first-year MBBS student and Irish citizen, whose baggage containing clothes, makeup kits and other belongings went missing at Mumbai International Airport in June, was left distressed after the bag was allegedly stolen from within the airport premises, police and family members said.The student, Harshita Agarwal (19), was on a two-month vacation and had travelled to Mumbai to visit her maternal uncle in Jalna.The family alleged that Emirates showed little interest in helping recover the bag even after being informed that CCTV footage showed a man, described as a seafarer from Saudi Arabia, taking the bag and boarding a flight to Dubai. The case was registered at Sahar police station on August 2 after Jalna police recorded Agarwal’s complaint two weeks earlier and transferred the case to Mumbai for further investigation.“As the incident occurred almost a month and a half ago, our team has sought CCTV footage to track down the person who took Agarwal’s baggage,” a Sahar police station officer said.Police said more than a dozen theft cases have been registered since 2024 at Sahar and Airport police stations, but none have been solved. Investigators suspect the involvement of insiders in some of the thefts.Unsolved Past Cases:Feb 2026 | Powai police registered an FIR of theft against an unidentified person for allegedly stealing Rs 1.5 lakh from the baggage of a 42-year-old businessman who travelled from Delhi to Mumbai. The complainant, identified as Afzal Zafar Chaudhary (42), a construction material supplying businessman and a resident of Uttar Pradesh, told police he travelled on Spicejet flight SG 385 between 06.15 am and 08.30 am and reached Mumbai Airport Terminal. Case still unsolvedJune 2025 | A flyer, AD Jain, vice president of a real estate company, discovered that gold ornaments worth ₹5.5 lakhs, belonging to his wife, were missing from his laptop bag upon landing at Mumbai International Airport from Delhi at 4 am. Case registered with Shivaji Park police and it is unsolved.April 2025| : A nurse, aged 50, discovered that her gold jewellery valued at Rs1.25 lakhs had vanished during her journey from Kochi to Mumbai on Akasa flight on Mar 28. The ornaments were stored in a purse within her handbag, which she had placed in the aircraft’s luggage compartment. Upon arrival at Mumbai airport, Rosamma Joseph, realised that whilst her handbag remained intact, the purse containing the precious items was missing. Case with Airport police which is unsolved.Feb 2025| A 63-year-old retired mechanical engineer from Navi Mumbai faced a distressing situation at Mumbai International Airport after his flight from Kolkata when thieves stole his password-protected iPhone from his shirt pocket on Feb 8. The victim, Badal Dutta, later discovered that the accused had carried out 10 unauthorised transactions from his three bank accounts within an hour of the theft after reaching home, according to police. Case still unsolved
