120 bags of rice, oil pouches burgled from grocery shop at Maan in Hinjewadi

Mihir Tanksale | TNN | Updated: Apr 16, 2020, 07:04 IST

Representative image

PUNE: Around 120 bags of rice worth Rs1.03 lakh and a box of oil pouches worth Rs12,000 were stolen from a grocery shop at Maan in Hinjewadi on Tuesday.
Except medical and essential services shops, all other shops are shut with the lockdown in effect. Along with these closed establishments, liquor shops too, are now on the radar of burglars, police said.
Grocery shopowner Shravan Kumar Gehlot (43) has lodged an FIR with the Hinjewadi police. Gehlot told TOI that his shop, Majisa Super Market, is located near a construction site at Maan. “On Monday I had refilled the bags of rice as we find it difficult to go to market every day during the lockdown,” Gehlot said.
On Wednesday around 6.30am when he went to the shop he found someone had removed the tin door of the shop. “I found that 120 bags of rice were missing along with a box of oil pouches, collectively worth Rs1.15 lakh,” Gehlot said.
Investigating officer Mahesh Waybase of the Hinjewadi police said the offence has been registered under sections 380 and 461 (dishonestly breaking open receptacle containing property) of the IPC.
On April 1, two criminals on police record had broken into four medical shops in Chinchwad and decamped with Rs5,000 from one of the shops. The duo was later arrested by the Chinchwad police.
An officer from the Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch said the thieves have been targeting the grocery and medical shops as these shops are operating during the lockdown. “In some areas suspects also broke into liquor shops. But these shops may be targeted by alcoholics who are finding it difficult to get liquor. We have launched a search for the thieves,” the officer said.