One of the accused hatched a plan to steal the gold after he learned that his neighbour would deliver jewellery consignments every day
Four youngsters were arrested yesterday after they stole gold jewellery worth Rs 12 lakh. According to the L T Marg policemen who arrested them, all the accused are first-time offenders, who committed the crime in order to make a quick buck to enjoy Diwali festivities.
Police Inspector Rajkumar Kothmire (far left) with the four accused and the seized bangles at L T Marg police station
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The theft was the brainchild of Prashant Juvle (20), a Virar resident, who learnt that his neighbour would deliver consignments of gold jewellery to Zaveri Bazaar every day.
Police Inspector Rajkumar Kothmire from the L T Marg police station said that on September 30, Shailesh Mohite and Vijay Chorge, two delivery boys who worked for a jewellery store, were carrying gold ornaments from the gold workshop in Dahisar, to the jewellery store at Zaveri Bazaar.
While Mohite was carrying 16 bangles weighing 375 grams, Chorge was carrying another 1.5 kg of gold ornaments. They got off a train at Marine Lines station and began walking towards Bada Kabristan, when they were accosted by three of the accused, who began threatening them, accusing them of beating up their friend on the train.
While the delivery boys protested and said they hadn’t beaten anyone, the three youths forced them to head towards the local police station. Midway, the three crooks snatched Mohite’s bag with the bangles, and attempted to grab the other bag from Chorge as well, but ran away after they failed to do so.
When the police investigated the robbery, they found CCTV footage, and with the video grabs, soon began a search. They arrested the three who had ambushed the delivery boys Satish Kaap (21) from Nallasopara, Aniket Gotad (19) and Vicky Jadhav (19), both Virar residents.
They also tracked down Juvle, and discovered that he was one of the delivery boys’ (Mohite) neighbour, and had hatched the robbery plan after he heard Mohite say that he carried large amounts of gold every day.
“We got CCTV footage from a few shops in the area, and got pictures of the accused. Mohite resides in Virar, so we distributed pictures in that area. Our staff was sent there and they caught Juvle, who was Mohite’s friend,” said Kothmire, adding that Juvle had taken care to stay away during the robbery to ensure that Mohite could not identify him.
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