Desperate to pay off the money he had borrowed after suffering business losses, an egg seller from Bhiwandi roped in three friends and robbed a truck that was ferrying over one lakh eggs from Hyderabad to a shop in Ambernath. The four were arrested on Thursday by the Thane Police Crime Branch.
Accosted on road
According to Crime Branch officers, the robbery occurred on November 11, when Hyderabad native Mohamed Nabi Sheikh and his son Muzammil were driving a consignment of 1.41 lakh eggs to Maharashtra Egg Centre in Ambernath.
The truck was intercepted at a desolate spot, around 4 km from Ambernath, where a car blocked the truck’s path. Four men from the car forced their way into the truck and assaulted Mr. Sheikh and his son, after which they tied handkerchiefs around their eyes and forced them into the car at knifepoint. Three of the accused left with them, while the fourth drove away with the truck.
Police officials with the seized eggs on Thursday. | Photo Credit: Vibhav Birwatkar
Mr. Sheikh and his son were stripped of their valuables and released at a secluded spot in Titwala, after which they registered a complaint with the Shivaji Nagar police station in Ambernath. Unit IV of the Thane Crime Branch was instructed to conduct parallel inquiries.
Familiar route
An officer who is part of the investigation said, “Although he was blindfolded, Mr. Sheikh, who has been making at least five deliveries to Ambernath every month for several years and hence has a fair idea of the roads in the area, managed to tell us the route that the accused might have taken before releasing him in Titwala. We scanned CCTV camera footage of the route and obtained details of all cell phones that had passed along the route from service providers.”
Simultaneously, the police started making inquiries among local informants for clues. “As eggs were stolen, we suspected that someone in the egg business might be involved. With the help of local informants, we zeroed in on Bhiwandi-based egg seller Sadat Ali. We learned that he had recently suffered losses and had fallen into heavy debt. Cellular location mapping also placed him in the same area as the scene of the crime on the day of the robbery, after which we picked him up for inquiries,” the officer said.
Mr. Ali allegedly confessed to having robbed the truck with three of his friends, after which all the four accused were placed under arrest.
The police said that the accused had studied the routine of the truck for several days before robbing it, and that the plan was to sell the eggs so that Mr. Ali could pay off his debts.
1.16 lakh eggs recovered
“Based on the interrogation of the accused, we have recovered 1.16 lakh eggs, the truck and the car used in the heist,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Deepak Deoraj, Thane Crime Branch, said.
The four accused have been charged with robbery under sections of the Indian Penal Code and will be produced in court on Friday, police officers said.