Rural police busts gang of robbers

Pune: The Pune rural police has arrested a gang of robbers for stealing copper and aluminium plates collectively worth Rs23.24 lakh as well as beating up a watchman and four labourers employed by a private company at Shivapur near Pune in the early hours of March 3.

The police team arrested the gang’s kingpin Kapildev Dubey from Nalasapora recently. The other members were subsequently arrested from Navi Mumbai, Mankhurd, Palghar and Vapi, Gujarat. Investigations have revealed that the gang was involved in several dacoities across the district and in the other cities.

According to the police, in the early hours of March 3, about 12 men entered the premises of the company, which manufactures transformers. Brandishing swords and wooden sticks, the suspects first attacked the watchman and forced him into the room, where the labourers were sleeping. The men also beat up the labourers and had tied all of them using bedsheets. The suspects then made away with four tonnes copper and about 700kg aluminium, worth Rs23.24 lakh. They also took the recorder of the CCTV cameras installed in the campus.

The Pune rural police had formed three teams, including two from the local crime branch and one from Rajgad police station. Assistant inspector of the local crime branch Rajesh Ramaghare said, “We studied the modus operandi and collected information about criminals involved in similar robberies.”

He added that, during the probe, the police received a tip-off about Dubey. “We laid a trap in Nalasopara, Palghar, and took Dubey into custody,” Ramaghare said. During questioning, the accused revealed the names of his accomplices.

The police have recovered the truck used by the gang to transport the copper and aluminium plates. “We have handed over the suspects to the Rajgad police for further probe,” Ramaghare said.

The gang’s modus

The police officer stated that the gang is mainly involved in robbing metals like copper and aluminium. The kingpin would hire the tempo under the pretext of loading goods from a company. “The tempo owner or driver did not know that their vehicle would be used to transport robbed material,” Ramaghare said.

Before hiring the tempo, some of the gang members would conduct a recce of the spot. In the early hours of the day, the gang would reach near the company in another vehicle. “After gaining forced entry, they would thrash the security guards and labourers before tying them up,” Ramaghare said.

After getting the ‘all clear’ signal, other gang members would enter the premises with the tempo to load the material. “Interestingly, in most cases, the driver did not know that his vehicle was being used to ferry robbed material,” Ramaghare said. The gang would eventually sell the material to some scrap dealer. The gang had committed robberies in a similar fashion in Dehu Road, Haveli, Vadgaon Maval and Bhor in Pune district as well as in Palghar and Nashik districts.