2 women held for snatching 4 gold chains

PUNE: The Market Yard police arrested two women and booked two others for robbing gold chains totally worth Rs 1.97 lakh from three women devotees at a religious congregation (satsang) addressed by Sant Rajinder Singhji Maharaj at Gangadham Chowk between 11pm and 11.30pm on Monday.

The suspects — Kashmira Putwa (30) and Seema Karan (20), both from Indore — were nabbed by the devotees and handed over to the police after one of the women raised an alarm.

"The suspects would stand in a queue behind the devotees waiting for their turn to seek blessings of the religious leader and rob their ornaments by taking advantage of the huge crowd," Market Yard police's senior-inspector Mohan Shinde said on Wednesday.

According to Shinde, "The suspects snatched four gold chains including a pendant from three women. One of the women, who lost two chains including a pendant raised an alarm for help. One suspect quickly bent down on the pretext of picking up something and passed the chains to other suspects."

When there was a commotion, Kashmira and Seema took to heels. But they were nabbed by the devotees and handed over to the security guards present at the religious congregation.

A police team outside the area took the two women into custody for further investigations. In the chaos, two accomplices of the suspects, both women, managed to escape.

The officer said, "According to the three complaints we have received from Riya Sachwani (32) of Satara, Vaishali Vartale (28) of Salisbury Park and Sumitra Agarwal (53) of Wakad, the suspects robbed them of their belongings."

"We have arrested the suspects. We have contacted Indore police to verify their address and to find out if they committed any offences there. We have launched a hunt to trace the other accomplices at the earliest. The suspects will be in police custody till October 4." Shinde added.