PUNE: A Karnataka resident has become the latest victim of the bike-borne robber duo, who snatched her purse containing cash & valuables worth Rs1.2 lakh early on Wednesday morning.
Chitra Ganesh Pandit, a resident of Sirsi in Karnataka, had arrived in Pune on Wednesday to visit her daughter. The 65-year-old got down from the bus at 5am on Ganeshkhind Road and hired an auto at 5.15am to go to her daughter’s house in Baner, when the robbery happened.
Pandit lodged a complaint with the Shivajinagar police. The spate of such incidents in the early hours have spread panic among autorickshaw passengers, police said.
A Shivajinagar police officer said Pandit got down from the bus near Rahul
theatre on Ganeshkhind Road. He said she waited for 15 minutes for public transport to her daughter’s house. Finally, at 5.15am, she got into an autorickshaw.
“She first placed bag in the autorickshaw and was about to get in, when two men on a motorcycle zoomed in, picked up her bag and fled,” the officer said.
He said that the bag contained Rs7,000 in cash and 40g of gold ornaments, collectively worth Rs1.2 lakh. “Pandit had raised an alarm, but the duo sped away,” the officer said.
She later went to the Shivajinagar police and lodged a complaint. “We are checking CCTV footage from the area to ascertain the identity of the suspects,” the office said.
A senior crime branch officer said they were hampered by the fact that these incidents happen early in the morning. “As the victims are travelling in autorickshaws, they were not able to provide a description of the duo or the registration number of the motorcycle. Even the autorickshaw drivers were not able to give us any details,” the officer said.
Due to the similarities in all the cases, the police suspect the involvement of the same duo.
The crime branch and the local police stations have alerted their informants. “We have intensified patrolling near the bus stands and railway stations. We are hoping to get a breakthrough soon,” the officer said.
Representative image