GUWAHATI: The Assam Police have recovered a heritage Hublot wristwatch of football legend Diego Maradona, which was stolen from his Dubai residence, and arrested the alleged thief.
It was a one of its kind and specially-made watch of the departed Argentine star. Maradona's jersey number 10 and his signature are inscribed on it, Assam Police said.
The state's Special Director-General of Police GP Singh had received inputs about the stolen watch. An operation by the Assam Police followed and led to the seizure of the watch.
"The Dubai Police had shared information with an Indian federal law enforcement agency that one Wazid Hussein (37), son of Kalyan Hussein and resident of Sivasagar in Assam, had stolen some belongings of football legend Maradona from his Dubai residence," Sivasagar Superintendent of Police Rakesh Roushan told The New Indian Express.
According to these inputs, Hussein, who worked at Maradona's Dubai residence as a domestic help, had fled to Assam in August this year.
"On the basis of that information, we launched an operation last (Friday) night and managed to recover the watch from the culprit's possession. We apprehended him," the SP said.
A case was earlier registered with the Dubai Police. It was still not clear if the watch was stolen before or after Maradona's death.
Roushan said the watch was made especially for Maradona. There is one special edition in the market which costs Rs 13-14 lakh, he said.
"The accused worked in Dubai since 2016. We do not know at what point in time he had stolen it. It has to be established," the SP said.
The accused told the police it was gifted to him by his Nigerian friend. "But as per the information we received, this should not be true. Nobody will gift such a costly watch to him," the SP said.
He said the next steps of the Assam Police will be based on how the Dubai Police wanted the case to be pursued. "If they want, we will have to deport him. If not, we will follow the due legal procedure here," he said.
Roushan also said that the Assam Police had received information that some other belongings of the football legend were also stolen. He said the police were investigating the case.
"He has not cooperated with us so far but we will go by the rule book. We are interrogating him. He denied having worked at the house of Maradona in Dubai or stolen the watch. But we received information that he had stolen the watch," the SP added.