Pune: Mundhwa Police Bust Gang Of Thieves Who Targeted PMPML Bus Passengers; Woman Among 5 Arrested Persons
Mundhwa, January 22, 2021: The sleuths from the detection branch (DB) of Mundhwa police station, Pune city police, have busted a gang of thieves who targeted passengers travelling in Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) buses or those who waited at bus stops.
Police have arrested four members of the gang including a woman. Cops have also arrested a jeweller who bought stolen ornaments from the accused persons. Valuables worth Rs 2.7 lakh have been recovered from them which they had stolen in 11 cases.
On January 20, a 48-year-old woman from Tadigutha chowk lodged an FIR with Mundhwa police station stating that her wallet containing Rs 320 cash and 6 gm gold chain, totally worth Rs 21,340, was stolen while she was travelling in a bus from Tadigutha chowk to Keshavnagar. The incident took place on January 19. She had given the description of three men and a woman.
While investigating the case, policeman Nilesh Palve received a tip-off about the accused thieves. Accordingly, a trap was laid in Keshavnagar and they were nabbed on January 20 evening.
The arrested persons were identified as Shital Shriniwas Wadekar (28), Sachin Sidram Gaikwad (37), both residents of Mundhwa, and Avinash Sidram Jadhav (27) and Sachin Dagdu Jadhav (37), both residents of Keshavnagar.
According to police, the gang was active in Pune for the last 3-4 years and have targeted passengers in areas under jurisdictions of police stations like Mundhwa, Swargate, Warje Malwadi, Deccan and Bundgarden. The accused used to sell stolen ornaments to a jeweller Hukumsingh Rajsingh Bhatti (48) of Kharadi. Police have arrested Bhatti also for buying stolen jewellery.
The investigation was conducted under the supervision of Additional Commissioner of Police (East Region) Namdev Chavan, DCP (Zone 5) Namrata Patil and ACP (Hadapsar division) Kalyanrao Vidhate. The team included Senior Police Inspector Sampatrao Bhosale, Police Inspector (Crime) Vijaykumar Shinde, Assistant Police Inspector Vijay Chandan and police personnel Avinash Marathe, Nana Bhandurge, Dinesh Rane, Datta Vibhute, Dipak Kamble, Mahesh Pathak, Swapnali Amble and Nilesh Palve.
