Four held for 20L construction material theft

Pune: The Chakan police have arrested four men in connection with the theft of construction material worth Rs 20 lakh from the site of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) at Rakshewadi, Khed taluka.The police have recovered the entire stolen booty, two cars and two motorcycles, all collectively worth Rs 31 lakh, from the accused. The Chakan police team led by senior police inspector Jitendra Kadam made the arrests.An officer from the Chakan police said construction work of 210 houses under the PMAY is ongoing at Rakshewadi. On April 16, centring plates worth Rs 20 lakh were stolen from the site. A case was registered with the Chakan police on April 18. "During the investigation, we found an unattended motorcycle at the crime scene. We traced the owner of the motorcycle. Also, checked the CCTV footage and nabbed the main accused, Raju Paswan, 40, from Susgaon," the officer said.He said that Paswan then revealed the names of his three more accomplices, Swapnil Kalpad, 25, Akram Khan, 28, and Swaraj Kalpad. "The accused sold the plates to three different scrap dealers. We have recovered the entire booty, two cars and two motorcycles from the accused," he said.