Posing As Income Tax Officers, Nine Men Including Three Software Engineers Kidnap And Loot Pune Jeweller

Vivek Patil & Mubarak Ansari

Katraj, 29th August 2021: The officials from Bharti Vidyapeeth police station under Pune City Police have arrested nine men for abducting and robbing a jeweller of Rs 20 lakh in cash and 300 grams gold. Among them are three software engineers and a criminal with a police record.

The incident took place around 9.30 pm on August 26. The 41-year-old jeweller from Dattanagar in Katraj was chatting with his friend near his house when five men came in an Innova and summoned him. “We are from the income tax department. You don’t pay income tax, you trade gold illegally, you defraud the government, you have an income tax raid on you”, they told him.

They forcibly took Rs 11,200 cash, his Aadhar Card and his PAN card. They then told him that they are aware the complaint has 25 kg of gold in his house and demanded Rs 75 Lakh from him. The jeweller claimed that the gold in the house belonged to the customer. The accused men sent the jeweller’s friend to his house, threatening to kill him if he did not immediately get Rs 20 Lakh and 300 grams of gold from his house. The complainant’s friend went to his house to fetch money but his wife did not pay. The jeweller then called his brother and asked him to bring money and gold. The two men came with Rs 20 Lakhs and 300 grams of gold.

The accused released them near Swaminarayan temple in Katraj and fled around 1 am on August 27. After checking with his CA about income tax filing, the jeweller lodged a complaint with the police.

During the investigation, police found that the jeweller’s friend Vyas Gulab Yadav (34), a native of Bihar, who resides in Ambegaon Khurd was the one involved in the crime. He was detained and during interrogation, he spilled the beans, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 2) Sagar Patil.

According to police, Yadav knew how much gold and cash the jeweller had. He then discussed his plan with his friend Shyam Achyut Tormal and later met Bhaiyasaheb More, Kiran Kumar Nair at Panchali Hotel on Jangli Maharaj road. Yadav informed them about the jeweller’s schedule and other intricate details about him. After the meeting at Panchali hotel, Shyam Tormal, Bhaiyasaheb More along with four to five men sat in an Innova car and approached the jeweller disguising as Income tax officers.h

“Yadav had accompanied the jeweller to the police station on Friday to lodge a complaint. When police asked for details of the robbery and the suspects, they answered them but sometimes Yadav acted suspiciously. We decided to question him separately. During the questioning, he revealed the names of other suspects. We tracked down the six suspects in Kolhapur, two others in Pune”, DCP Patil informed.

In a dramatic chase of the suspects in a car at Gadhinglaj, two policemen sustained injuries.

The investigation was carried under the supervision of ACP Sushma Chavan and Senior Police Inspector Jagannath Kalaskar.

The investigation team included Police Inspector (crime) Sangita Yadav, Inspector Vijay Puranik, PSI Nitin Shinde, Ankush Karche and police personnel Ravindra Bhosale, Ravindra Chippa, Ganesh Sutar, Sachin Pawar, Nilesh Khomane, Yogesh Sul, Hershal Shinde, Abhijeet Jadhav, Ganesh Shende, Rahul Tambe, Dhanaji Dhotre, Navnath Khatal, Sachin Gade, Ashish Gaikwad, Vikram Sawant, Jagdish Khedkar and Shivdatta Gaikwad.