Pune: Stepping up policing ahead of the 10-day Ganesh festival, the crime branch unit 4 nabbed five members of mobile theft gang and recovered 20 mobiles on Monday. The arrested include Kishor Uttam Gaikwad, Ajay alias Omkar Suresh Gadekar, Ashish alias Bona Santosh Sojwal and George D’Souza from Bopodi, and Sahil alias Sahilya Salim Sheikh of Khadki.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Satish Govekar said, “The accused used to target people walking alone along the roadsides of old Pune-Mumbai highway during late nights by threatening them with weapons. Based on tip-off, we nabbed three trying to sell stolen mobiles near Sai Baba Temple in Bopodi and recovered 12 mobile handsets, one knife and one motorcycle. D’Souza and Sheikh were later picked from Harris Bridge in Dapodi and eight mobile handsets and one motorcycle was found in their possession.
Accused were produced in court and granted police custody till September 14.