E-Paper
Jewellery theft: Six arrested within 24 hours in Pune
Six of them were arrested from Vapi railway station by the Jawans of Railway Police Force based on their photographs sent by the Pune crime branch.
Six men were arrested on Thursday while one is on the run in the case of gold theft that took place on Wednesday and complaint registered at Faraskhana police station. Two of the six arrested men were part of the group which had committed a similar theft in the same area of Raviwar Peth, according to the police.
The six arrested were identified as Manish Govind Swar, 25; Devendra Bahaddur Kunwar, 27; Prakash Karan Khadka, 27; Manoj Mangal Bagoti, 21; Gokul Sagar Oad, 20; and Hansraj Lale Kami, 23, according to the police. Swar, Kunwar, Khadka and Bagoti, all nationals of Nepal working in Pune, were arrested from Vapi railway station by the Jawans of Railway Police Force based on their photographs sent by the Pune crime branch. The four were aboard Dehradun Express en route Nepal.
“We caught them in what we call as the golden hour after any crime. Had they managed to cross over to Nepal, it would have been very difficult to trace them,” said Pradeep Deshpande, additional commissioner of police, crime1.
The city police had recovered the CCTV footage showing the four running away from the shop on Wednesday. Oad was arrested for suggesting the theft and Kami was arrested for his role in the distribution of money. After the theft, the four went to Kami’s roadside Chinese food eatery in Kondhwa and distributed the loot. They then took a bus to Mumbai with an intention to flee to Nepal.
The four men had managed to flee the spot with 800 gram of gold, and cash, collectively worth ₹24,73,000, after threatening the jeweller at Payal Jewellers in Raviwar Peth with a sickle. Members of unit 1, unit 2, anti-dacoity cell and anti-extortion cell were a part of the team which tracked the six people down and recovered gold biscuits and jewellery weighing around 650 gm worth ₹20 lakh, according to Deshpande.
“We urge the local businessmen to not employ Nepali nationals without proper police verification just because they are available as cheap labour. Details of only one person among the four were recorded by his employer,” Deshpande said.
Swar and Kunvar were involved in another case in Raviwar Peth where a jewellery polishing shop owner was tied with a cloth and confined to his own shop while the thieves fled with jewellery and cash.