Unit two of the Navi Mumbai Crime Branch arrested six persons for allegedly robbing a jeweller from Beed in Maharashtra along the Sion-Panvel highway in Kalamboli last month.
The accused had sprayed chilli powder soon after the jeweller got down from the long-route bus in Kalamboli and snatched the bag containing Rs 19 lakh. The trader used to visit the city once a week or fortnight to buy jewellery from Mumbai.
Santosh Jadhav (37), a trader from Ambejogai in Beed has a jewellery shop and he used to come on every or alternate Saturday to buy jewellery from Mumbai.
Police said that he boards the bus on Friday night and gets down at Kalamboli and this was his routine visit at the market is closed on Saturday in Ambejogai.
According to police, before going to Mumbai, Jadhav used to visit one of his friend’s homes in Kalamboli in the morning. On November 27, around 7 am, Jadhav got down from the bus in Kalamboli, and as he was heading towards the car of his friend, an unidentified man sprayed chilli powder at his face.
Soon after, two persons who came from behind carrying sharp-edged weapons assaulted him and snatched the bag containing Rs 19 lakh and they all fled. A case was registered at Kamothe police station under sections 379 and 34 of IPC.
The Crime Branch carried out a simultaneous investigation and with the help of CCTV footage and technical support, they arrested six persons from Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Mumbai, and Karnataka.
The arrested accused were identified as Aniket Mhatre (23), Kiran Pawar (21), Bhima Pawar (21) Laxman Rathod (22), a resident of Taloja, Manoj Gurmya Rathod (22) all are residents of Panvel and Kartik Sushil Sinha (24) is a resident of Baner in Pune. Police said that they recovered all looted amounts and four more accused are wanted in this case.
Suresh Mengde, deputy commissioner of police (Crime Branch), said that the accused Aniket was an acquaintance of Jadhav’s friend and he was aware of his visit. “Aniket along with others hatched the plan to rob Jadhav,” said Mengde, adding that they had planned to commit the crime on November 20. But they could not do as there was police patrolling near the highway due to the ongoing state transport bus strike.
