Thane police arrest gang targeting sr citizens, recover gold worth Rs 9 lakh

A gang of thieves, who targeted senior citizens in the city and robbed them after engaging them in small talk, was busted by the Thane Nagar police station with the arrest of its mastermind Ramesh Jaiswal, 32, a few days ago.

A gang of thieves, who targeted senior citizens in the city and robbed them after engaging them in small talk, was busted by the Thane Nagar police station with the arrest of its mastermind Ramesh Jaiswal, 32, a few days ago.

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Jaiswal and his aide Ajay Pawar, 26, were arrested from Akkalkot in Solapur after other members of the gang were nabbed by the Navi Mumbai police earlier.

The Thane nagar police station got the eight accused transferred from the Navi Mumbai police custody and during their interrogation it was revealed that Jaiswal had escaped to Solapur.

“They would work in a group of three persons and target senior citizens in crowded places like railway stations and bus depots. While one of them would greet a senior citizen and ask whether they recognised him, the other two would join him after some time. He would introduce himself as a bank manager and when the senior citizen still looked baffled, the other two would come in at intervals to establish his identity and credibility. The accused would nick off the jewellery in the meantime between the sweet talk,” said police inspector Hemant Sawant.

The gang members are all in the age group 25-35 years and are residents of Mumbai. The police have so far detected 11 cases against them in Thane nagar police jurisdiction.

The police will be extending their custody as more cases are likely to be detected in other police stations of the commissionerate.