Burglars take river route to break into flat in Kalyaninagar

PUNE: Two burglars waded through the waters of the Mula-Mutha, climbed the barbed boundary wall of an upscale housing society in Kalyaninagar and stole valuables worth Rs 2.44 lakh from a businessman’s ground floor flat sometime during the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.

The businessman, Pradip Govindlal Agarwal (50), lodged a complaint with the Yerawada police after the theft came to light around 8am. Agarwal, who has his roots in Nagpur, runs a plastic manufacturing unit at Ranjangaon near here.
Inspector Ajay Waghmare of the Yerawada police said the burglars struck at Agarwal’s sprawling flat at Marigold Complex. “The society is located on the banks of the Mula-Mutha. It has a 11-foot-high brick compound wall with a barbed wire fence on top. The society has CCTV surveillance with the security guards maintaining round-the-clock vigil on the premises, especially at the front gates,” he said.
Waghmare said Agarwal, his driver, servant and his dog slept in different rooms of the flat on Sunday night. “After waking up on Monday morning, the servant went to one of the rooms which has a balcony. He saw the balcony door open and the safe in the room broken,” he said.
Waghmare said, “The waters of the Mula-Mutha are almost touching the compound wall of the society now. After studying the crime scene, we presume that the two men walked till the wall from the river before scaling it. They entered the society through the small gap between the barbed fence and the compound wall.”
The burglars walked up to the building where Agarwal lives after passing by the society’s swimming pool. “They entered the balcony of Agarwal’s flat, broke open the locks of the iron grille doors and took gold and silver coins and cash, totally worth Rs 2.44 lakh, from the safe. The burglars were so silent that no one in the flat got up, not even the dog,” Waghmare said.
The police have recovered CCTV footage of the two men walking towards the building from the swimming pool area. However, the footage is of poor quality because of inadequate light, Waghmare said.