Gang of six women pickpockets held

Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch on Sunday arrested a gang of six women who used to steal gold jewellery from bus passengers. The police have recovered stolen gold jewellery worth Rs 90,000 from the women. A crime branch team led by senior police inspector Santosh Kasbe took the women into custody from Shikrapur after checking several CCTV footages from Bhosari MIDC to Shikrapur."The accused women are from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Gulbarga in Karnataka," Kasbe told TOI.Kasbe said that the women used to target elderly women passengers travelling in PMPML or MSRTC buses. "The women always used to carry a toddler with them. After identifying their target, one of them used to sit next to her. Under the pretext of breastfeeding the child, the other women used to cover her. The women used to divert the attention of the elderly woman and steal her jewellery or purse," Kasbe said.The officer said that after the theft, the women immediately used to get down the bus at the next stop and leave the area in autorickshaws or by taking a lift in any vehicle. "We checked the footages of several autorickshaws and trucks to trace them till Shikrapur," the officer said.Kasbe said that the gang was operating in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad for the last 15 days. "We suspect that they were involved in many recent thefts on buses. We nabbed them before they could commit more crimes," Kasbe said.