Mumbai: Two individuals were apprehended on Monday in connection with the alleged theft of 66 hard disks valued at Rs 13 lakh from the Bandra office of renowned Bollywood filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. The police disclosed that one of the suspects, Mohammad Shahid Khan, had been employed as a support staffer at the filmmakers' office for the past seven years. The second suspect, identified only as Ritesh, is accused of purchasing the stolen property from Khan.
An FIR was registered on Sunday based on a complaint filed by an executive assistant working at Tiger Baby Digital LLP, the production house owned by Akhtar and Kagti. The office has a total of 11 employees, including four support staff members. According to the FIR, the production house stores data from film and commercial shoots on hard disks, which are kept securely in a cupboard at the Bandra office. The complainant stated that she had arranged all the hard disks in proper order in November 2025. Subsequently, whenever a hard disk was needed, Khan was tasked with retrieving it.
On May 21, when other employees requested Khan to fetch a specific hard disk, he was unable to locate it, as per the FIR. Upon checking the cupboard, the complainant discovered that some boxes that had contained hard disks were partially burnt. However, the boxes were empty, and there were no burn marks on the cupboard itself. An audit conducted by the employees revealed that 66 hard disks were missing. Some of these disks contained data from films, OTT shows, and commercials produced by the company. The filmmakers were informed, and the support staff was interrogated.
During questioning, Khan admitted to stealing 24 hard disks over the past five months and selling them to Ritesh, a resident of Borivli. He did not confess to stealing the remaining disks. The Bandra police were subsequently notified. Charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for theft by a servant of property in possession of the employer and for retaining or receiving stolen property have been filed against both Khan and Ritesh.
