Two arrested; 13 Royal Enfields among 15 vehicles recovered

The Pimpri-Chinchwad crime branch officials arrested two men and recovered 13 stolen Royal Enfield motorbikes along with two other vehicles from them, according to Krishna Prakash, commissioner of Pimpri Chinchwad police. He was speaking at a press conference held on Monday.

The two men have been identified as Vishal Balasaheb Magar (20), a resident of Lehanewadi in Jamkhed and Vishal Bankat Khaire (21), a resident of Bhutdata in Jamkhed area of Ahmednagar. The police are looking for one Mumbai-based person in the case.

They were arrested on Sunday by the crime branch officials and remanded to police custody by a local court on Monday.

Of the recovered vehicles, 13 are Royal Enfield motorcycles, one is a TVS Apache, and one Honda Activa, according to the police. The total cost of the stolen vehicles was estimated to be around ₹20,50,000 and the vehicles were reported stolen from various parts of Maharashtra.

Of the 15 vehicles, two cases each are registered at Chakan, Bhosari MIDC, Rajgad, and one each at Bhosari, Pimpri, Hinjewadi, Neral, APMC, Rabale, and Kapurbawadi police stations.

The arrest was made by a team led by senior police inspector Shankar Babar of Unit 3, Pimpri-Chinchwad police crime branch.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad police had noticed a trend of theft of Royal Enfield motorbikes. The police had identified the thefts to have been done by associates of Mumbai-based criminal Amol Shivaji Dhobale. The police then started looking for their known accomplice and tracking them, according to the police statement.

On Sunday, hawaldars Pramod Dhakane and Yogeshwar Kolekar received information that two men on a stolen Royal Enfield were coming to a place in the jurisdiction of Chakan police station. A trap was set and the two men were thus arrested later on Sunday.

The two collectively have 13 cases registered against them various parts of Maharashtra including Ahmednagar, Pimpri-Chinchwad, and Pune city.