Night patrol team foils six men’s bid to attack student

Pune: A timely tip-off received by a night patrol from the city police control room helped the former foil a bid by six men to attack a student with sharp weapons behind a college in Ambegaon Budruk around 2am on Thursday.The assailants, brandishing weapons, abandoned three motorcycles, two sharp weapons and two cellphones while feeling after spotting a police team.Later, the Bharati Vidyapeeth police arrested five men, including two criminals on record, Vikas Chavda (30) and Mohan Rathod (21) both from Wadgaon Budruk, and three engineering students on the charge of rioting and breaching prohibitory order under the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and Maharashtra Police Act.Inspector (crime) Vijay Puranik on Saturday said the police control room relayed a message to a night patrol from Ambegaon Pathar police chowkey stating that six men brandishing sharp weapons had picked up an argument with a student over a previous rivalry. Acting on the information, a patrol reached a private parking ground behind the college to foil their bid to attack a student. Puranik said, “The assailants, apprehending arrests, abandoned their bikes, weapons and phones and took to their heels in different directions. The police, with the help of the bike’s registration numbers and cellphones, established their identity and took five men, including two criminals and three others in custody from their hideouts.”A police team has been fanned to arrest the sixth man on the run in this case. Further investigation is underway, he added.The police produced the five men before a magisterial court on Friday which ordered their custodial remand till May 7.