Merry Xmas weekend for thieves

A major embarrassment was caused to the police and other authorities when thieves in Wadgaon Maval made away with Rs 29,655 from the Land Registrar office of the Tehsil Office in Maval taluka late last week.u00a0The incident occurred in the evening on Friday on the Tehsil Office campus, which also houses the forest department and marriage registration offices and is apparentlyu00a0located a few metres behindu00a0the Wadgaon Maval police station.u00a0

After officials had locked the office for the day around 7.30 pm, thieves reportedly broke in through the roof of the Land Registrar office by removing some tiles.u00a0The thieves broke open the cash drawers and emptied its contents. The drawers held the fees collected by the office for various purposes.u00a0

The robbery was discovered on Saturday morning when officials opened the office for the day and found theu00a0

drawers ransacked and the roof half open.u00a0A complaint was lodged the same day by an official, Sheryu Sanjay Kher.u00a0The police registered an FIR against unknown persons for housebreaking.

Police Sub-Inspector Pradeep Suryawanshi, who is the investigating officer in the case, said that though they brought in a dog squad andu00a0also conducted fingerprint tests, the police had not been successful in gathering credible leads yet.u00a0"The entire campus has only one security guard. The numbers have been increased after the theft," he said.u00a0

The city also saw a couple of u00a0thefts over the weekend, with the total loss pegged at Rs 6.30 lakh in two separate incidents.u00a0In the first incident in Karvenagar, the office of Mandar Lakshman Sant (41) near Tol Hospital was broken into and Rs 3.70 lakh stolen. The incident happened between Saturday and Sunday when unknown persons broke into the office from the front door and made away with a suitcase containing the money.u00a0

Sant runs a placement agency and software consultancy firm near Navsahyadri Society. The Kothrud police station registered a case against unknown persons under Sections 454 and 457 of the IPC.u00a0

The second incident in the city took place in Kalyaninagar around 8.30 pm on Friday, when workmen allegedly stole jewellery worth Rs 2.60 lakh from the house of Rajini Talreja (51) when it was undergoing painting and renovation work.u00a0The painting work had been on since December 5 and the contract for it was given by Talreja to one Ramayan Prasad Sonkar. The theft occurred in one of the bedrooms.u00a0

According to the complaint lodged at the Yerawada police station, the arrested accused Indrapal Panchlal Sonkar (25) and Lavlesh Indrajit Sonkar, both painters, stole gold jewellery that was wrapped in a pink cloth.u00a0Both Indrapal and Lavlesh were booked under Sections 380 and 34 of the IPC.