Four youths arrested for Cidco arson

NASHIK: The city police have arrested four youths in connection over the incident of vehiclular aron in the Swami Vivekanand Nagar area of Cidco on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Santosh Pithekar, Ganesh Gaikwad, Prashant Lohakare and Sagar Pawar. All four accused are their 20s and are residents of Chetana Nagar, Pathardi Phata, Lekha Nagar and Nashik Road, respectively.
The accused had reportedly gone to Swami Vivekanand Nagar to steal petrol for their auto rickshaws but were worried that they were being stalked after being spotted committing the fuel theft.
They therefore ended up putting petrol on vehicles and setting them on fire, while escaping from the scene. Among the four, Santosh Pithekar and Ganesh Gaikwad have faced police action for robbery in the past.
Police nabbed Lohakare on Friday afternoon, followed by the arrest of the other three from their residences.
Deputy commissioner of police, D S Swami confirmed the arrests. “On Thursday night, the four accused came to Swami Vivekanand Nagar in a bid to steal petrol from parked bikes in the area, ” Swami said. The neighbhourhood was familiar to the gang since Gaikwad, had formerly lived in the area, police said.
In a bid to probe the case from all possible angles, the police had formed various teams each of whom was chasing a different line of investigation.
Cops called close to 40 people for enquiry all day on Thursday. The first name that came to the fore was Lohakare’s, which came up through information gathered by senior police inspector B A Borkar and constable Yuvraj Patil of the Ambad police station. The four accused have confessed to their crime. Police said there had been no political influence in the case.