Chor police bhai-bhai, team up in Rs 1.3cr holdup on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

KHOPOLI (Raigad district): Ten persons, including two Pune policemen, have been arrested for the biggest robbery on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the sum involved being Rs 1.29 crore. On December 10, three employees of a jewellery firm were going from Mumbai to Bangalore via the expressway with cash and gold. Around 9.30 pm, when their bus stopped at Food Mall on the expressway at Khopoli, the two accused cops, along with five others pretending to be policemen, approached the three jewellery firm employees and told them they were under arrest for being suspects in a bomb blast case. "Shocked and surprised, the employees protested. The two policemen convinced their copassengers that the three had to be arrested. The policemen then forced the three in a Tavera and took them to an isolated spot in Lonavala via the expressway," said Raigad's superintendent of police Ankush Shinde. On reaching Lonavala, the gang of seven beat up their victims—Maruti Laote, Sachin Takale and Amol More—robbed them of their goods and also their mobile phones. Sunil Kadam, the owner of the jewellery firm, which is in Sangli, lodged an FIR at the Khopoli police station. A police team comprising officers and constables from Khopoli, Khalapur and Alibaug started working on the case. "Going by the nature of the robbery, it was apparent that someone had tipped off the gang that the three employees were to carry a large amount of cash and valuables and were to journey by bus. So, our team started questioning certain persons in Sangli and Solapur and soon nabbed two people in Atpadi, where the jewellery firm is based. They were the ones who had tipped off the gang," said the SP. Grilling them led the police to the gang members who committed the actual crime. They included constables Ashish Pawar of the Deccan police station and Sampat Pardhi of the Bhosari police station, both in Pune district. "The two accused policemen were friends. Along with their five fake-cop accomplices, they followed the bus from Sion Circle, Mumbai, till Food Mall," said police inspector S S Shukla of the Khopoli police station. The other arrested men are Amol Ghodade (22), Deepak Narewadi (29), Prakash Chavan (38), Sunil Date (33), Shankar Jadhav (42), Hiraman Salunkhe (42), Sudarshan Javir (27) and Tulsiram Dalve (42). All have been remanded in police custody till December 27. "One of the accused said during his interrogation that the gang had committed a similar robbery near Hyderabad on a national highway. We suspect the gang to be involved in more such crimes, but this needs to be confirmed," said the SP.   TOI