Gang that robbed passengers in autorickshaw busted

NAGPUR: Crime branch has last week busted an eight-member gang that targeted passengers, especially senior citizens, travelling in autorickshaws. The cops have detected 21 offences recovering valuables worth more than Rs 10 lakh.


The persons arrested on July 24 by crime branch have been identified as Roshan Khobragade,

Shubham Borkar

,

Manisha Khobragade alias Chhaya

,

Shobha Watkar

and Jaya Dongre. Two women too were nabbed during the action but their names were withheld for the purpose of investigation. Police said Chhaya was the mastermind of the gang whose activities are still being probed.

Roshan had several cases of burglaries against him and was also named in a case of murder. Chhaya too had been jailed on numbers of occasions in the past. Apart from Chhaya, her mother and sisters too were nabbed for their involvement. Police said Roshan would drive autorickshaw while Chhaya’s role was to cut the bag to take out the valuables as other accomplices kept the victim distracted.

The gang was busted by crime branch’s unit number four under

APIs

Kiran Choughule, Pradeep Atulkar, PSI Manish Wakode and others under supervision of DCP, crime,

Sambhaji Kadam

and ACP, crime, Sanjeev Kamble.

Police said the gang was under scanner since long but concrete information was received only earlier this month. The gang had robbed 65-year-old Meenabai Acharya by offering her a ride till Nandanvan on July 18.

CCTV

footages too had helped police to identify the autorickshaw gang. The autorickshaw, in which the gang operated, was intercepted on it’s way to Chhatrapati nagar following a specific input. During searches the cops had recovered two blades from Chhaya’s possession and a small knife.

The gang operated across the city with offences registered at police stations like Nandanvan, Sakkardara, Lakadganj, Sitabuldi, Hudkeshwar, Dhantoli and other police stations..