Cigarettes worth Rs 4.5 crores seized by Pune rural police from inter-state highway robbers
Mubarak Ansari
Pune, June 25, 2020: The sleuths from the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of Pune rural police have busted an inter-state gang, which was involved in looting on the highways across India, and have seized cigarettes worth Rs 4.5 crores besides other valuables.
Superintendent of Police (Pune rural) Sandip Patil, Additional SP (Baramati division) Milind Mohite supervised the investigation team which was led by LCB Police Inspector Padmakar Ghanwat. During the investigation, the police team had gone to Dewas, Indore in Madhya Pradesh and collected information about the accused persons.
How the dacoits were caught?
On June 24 (yesterday), LCB received information about one of the accused while he was going in a truck from Chaufula towards Shirur. There was no number plate on the backside of the truck. As the LCB team began the chase, the truck driver sped towards Ahmednagar. The LCB contacted Shirur Police Inspector Praveen Khanapure who blocked the traffic at Satrakman Bridge in Shirur, by setting up a check post.
“After both the vehicles got stuck in the traffic jam, the accused in one truck jumped and fled and the accused in the other truck broke the railing and sped away. One LCB team took possession of the truck standing there, while another team again chased the other truck. The accused left the truck and fled into the nearby sugarcane field. A search was done till late night and by today around 11 am, seven accused persons were nabbed from the field”, said Inspector Ghanwat.
Recovery from the dacoits: In of the trucks, police found 588 boxes of cigarettes, worth Rs 4.5 crores, belonging to ITC located in Ranjangaon MIDC. During the entire operation, police seized two trucks, Rs 13,600 cash, six mobile phones, 1 duplicate revolver, duplicate number plates, one chopper, totally worth Rs 4.91 crores.
Arrested persons: The arrested accused have been identified as Dinesh Vasudev (50), Sushil Rajendra, both residents of Tonkkalan in Tonk Khurd Tehsil, Manoj Kesharsingh Gooden of Oadgaon in Sonkatch Tehsil, Manoj alias Ganja Rajaram Sisodia, Omprakash Krishna Jhala, both residents of Bhairavkhedi in Tonk Khurd Tehsil, Kalyan Sadul Chauhan of Oad in Sonkatch Tehsil, Satish Antarsingh Jhanja of Oadgaon in Sonkatch Tehsil, all located in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh.
Gang operated in many states: Pune rural SP Patil said that the arrested persons are notorious criminals of an inter-state gang. They had hijacked the cigarette laden truck on Supe-Morgaon road by threatening the driver with a duplicate revolver. They had left the driver at Tembhurni. Based on a complaint from the driver, an FIR was registered with Vadgaon Nimbalkar police station.
“The gang has committed crimes all over India in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, West Bengal, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh. More crimes are likely to be uncovered. LCB is further investigating the case”, the officer added.
Investigation team included Assistant Police Inspector Dattatraya Gund, PSI Amol Gore and ASI Dattanay Girimkar, Dayanand Liman, Police Naik Raju Momin, Janardhan Shelke, Head Constables Mahesh Gaikwad, Umakant Kunjir, Mukund Ayachit, Moreshwar Inamdar, Rajendra Punekar, Anil Kale, Raviraj Kokre, Police Naik Vijay Kanchan, Guru Gaikwad, Subhash Raut, Guru Jadhav, Rauf Inamdar, Pramod Navale, Constable Dhiraj Jadhav, Head Constable Sawant and Akshay Jawale.
