Man steals cylinder-laden truck to fund gambling

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In a bid to recover money lost in online rummy, a truck driver allegedly engineered the theft of an LPG cylinder-laden truck, leading to the arrest of three persons by the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city crime branch.DCP (crime) Ratnakar Navale said the accused stole a truck loaded with gas cylinders from the HPCL premises at Naregaon and sold the consignment at throwaway prices to fund gambling and leisure activities. The main accused has been identified as Vijay alias Guddu Vishram Pawar (38), a resident of Naregaon and a gas cylinder truck driver. The other arrested accused are Jagdish alias Jigar Rajendra Patel (38) of Ghodegaon in Nevasa taluka and Akshay Ganesh Solunke (27) of Murtijapur. All three were produced before a court on Thursday and remanded to two days of police custody.Crime branch inspector Gajanan Kalyankar said the incident occurred on the night of Dec 23 at the HPCL gas company premises, where a truck (MH-44-U-2309) loaded with 62 gas cylinders was parked. "As per routine practice, the driver had left the ignition key inside the vehicle. Taking advantage of this, the accused drove away the truck during the night," he said.Investigations revealed that the cylinders were later unloaded with the help of accomplices, after which the empty truck was abandoned near Zhalta Phata to mislead investigators. Following a complaint, the crime branch received a tip-off indicating Pawar's involvement.