Robber nabbed

MUMBAI: The police on Saturday arrested a local goon who has allegedly duped and robbed many shopkeepers of lakhs of rupees in Bhandup (west).
He was caught after a shopkeeper lodged a first information report (FIR) claiming that the accused forcibly evicted him from his shop in November, 2009 and also stole electrical goods valued at Rs 20 lakh.
According to the police, the accused Sudhakar Sharma alias Pampi used to be involved in the sale of shops and later, he would forcibly evict the buyers from their shops.Sharma would also steal goods from the victims' shops.
He has been booked under Sections 348 (wrongful confinement to extort confession, or compel restoration of property), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 454 (house break-in in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) and 457 (house break-in during night) of the IPC. He has been remanded to police custody till January 14. Sharma's accomplice Kadu More is still at large.
One of the victims, Gopal Gaunder alias Mannu told TOI, "I purchased the shop from Sharma in November. A few days after signing the agreement, he threatened me and asked me to pay more money. When I said no, he evicted me from the shop and took away electrical goods valued at Rs 20 lakh that were kept in the shop.''
Sharma had posted his men at the shop, who stopped Gaunder from entering it. "I was forced out of the shop by Sharma's accomplice. When I approached the police to lodge a complaint in November, they did not agree to register an FIR. However, it was registered when I approached the Zonal DCP,'' Gaunder said.
"In 2005, goods valued at over Rs 2.5 lakh were stolen from my shop. A complaint was lodged then but no action was taken against Sharma who had bribed the local police officials,'' another victim Ramesh Vishwakarma said. He added that Sharma used to terrorise the entire locality at Tulshet Pada in Bhandup (west) with his illegal activities.
Senior inspector Prakash Jadhav of the Bhandup police station denied not acting on the complaints. "It was a technical complaint and after proper verification, Sharma was arrested. We are finding out the total number of people who were cheated or robbed by him.''