Maha: Two held in Thane for robbing senior citizens; 13 cases solved

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The Navi Mumbai police claimed to have solved 13 cases of robbing senior citizens with the arrest of two persons in Maharashtra's Thane district.

There had been several cases of the culprits posing as policemen or influential persons and robbing elderly people of gold chain and other valuables while they were moving alone, senior police inspector Ravindra Patil of Navi Mumbai Crime Branch Unit II said.

The police found it difficult to get details of the accused from the victims.

A police probe team then studied the modus operandi of the robbers and checked for similar crimes in the limits of Navi Mumbai, Thane and Mumbai police commissionerates, the official said.

Also read: Mumbai: Anti-narcotics cell raids paan shops, seizes more than 1,000 e-cigarettes

The police on Monday nabbed the two accused persons, identified as Naresh Jaiswal (42) from Kalyan and Babu Manchekar (60) from Taloja area, he said.

Following their questioning and search, stolen items including gold chains and other valuables worth Rs 5.30 lakh were recovered, the official said.

The police detected as many as 13 cases of crimes committed by them in the limits of Vashi, Turbhe, Koparkhairne, Nerul, Rabale (all areas in Navi Mumbai), Matunga, Sion, Kanjurmarg (in neighbouring Mumbai) and MFC (Thane) police stations, he said.

Meanwhile, in a massive crackdown on e-cigarettes, the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) carried out raids on multiple paan shops near schools and colleges in Mumbai. During the searches, the ANC found e-cigarettes at the famous Muchhad Paanwala shop in south Mumbai.

Later, the ANC raided Muchhad Paanwala's godown and seized more than 1,000 e-cigarettes.

The crackdown on e-cigarettes is going on for one week based on the instructions of joint commissioner (crime) Lakhmi Gautam.

Muchhad Paanwala was earlier arrested by NCB in a drug case. (Agencies)