Pune Crime: Highway robbers nabbed in high-speed police chase

Quick response by the Bhosari police team led to the gang’s capture a mere two hours after they looted a petrol pump; the gang admitted to committing five other robberies

In a high-speed police pursuit straight out of a Bollywood masala flick, a gang of serial highway robbers was nabbed at Bhosari MIDC on Sunday morning. Displaying a quick and bold response, the Bhosari police caught the robbers a mere two hours after they hit Sai Gauri petrol pump in Phugewadi in the early hours of Sunday.

Around 3 am, the gang of five entered the petrol pump after requesting a worker, Parshuram Gaikwad (31), to open it. They then attacked him with sharp weapons and fled after stealing Rs 15,000. Gaikwad immediately called the police, who reached the spot in ten minutes.

Sanjay Kandalkar, Police Sub-Inspector of Bhosari police station said, “At around 3:15 am, I received a call from the night patrolling party, who alerted me about the incident. I reached the spot and checked the CCTV footage and briefed the night patrolling team about the five robbers.”

The police immediately began patrolling in an attempt to locate the culprits. “During the patrol, when I was on my way from Bhosari MIDC to the Sanjay Hyundai showroom, I saw two motorbikes driving recklessly at high speed. I told my driver, Santosh Ghore to switch on the searchlight,” said Kandalkar.

When they switched on the police jeep’s searchlight, Kandalkar and Ghore recognised the five robbers from the CCTV footage and immediately began to give chase. “Only the driver was there along with me. I asked him to take the jeep close to the bikes so we could catch hold of at least one of them. When we got close enough, Ghore applied the hand break, and we jumped out of the jeep and caught two of them. In the meanwhile, three of them escaped,” Kandalkar recalled.

He added, “I immediately called my patrolling team for additional force. During the search operation we caught hold of the trio who were in the pond near the College of Military Engineering.”

The arrested, Gorakh Namdev Badke (21), Sanjay Nagesh Jadhav (19), Ganesh Sambhaji Chavan (21), Anil Sawant (20), and Ganesh Balu Sakat (19) are all residents of Phugewadi, and admitted to their involvement in five other robberies on the Nigdi-Pimpri highway. “We will be able to solve the other cases during further investigation, as we have got them in custody till September 4,” said Kandalkar.

The police also seized the bikes bearing the registration numbers MH14 BY3800 (Hero Honda Karizma) and MH14 BY6992 (Hero Honda CBZ).

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