Childhood friends form robbery gang, held

Nagpur: Matching fingerprints led to the arrest of a burglar who, along with his childhood friend, had committed a spate of housebreakings in the city.
Shanti Nagar police have identified the burglars as Rupesh Pande (30) and Abdul Rehman (30), both residents of Shanti Nagar. They are childhood friends and reportedly studied together in school. “Now, they formed a gang to commit housebreaking thefts,” said the police.
Cops said that on April 20, one Krishna Jha (30, a resident of Tulsi Nagar) had lodged a complaint that some unidentified thieves had entered his two-storey house by breaking the latch of the main door and decamped with valuables worth Rs5.10 lakh, including Rs50,000 cash. They committed the theft within half an hour when Jha had gone to his uncle’s house in the neighbourhood at 9.30pm.
Shanti Nagar police reached the spot and summoned the forensic team. The pattern of the theft of not breaking the door’s lock but opening the latch and not making any noise gave the police an inkling that some expert gang of thieves may have committed the crime.
First, Pande was nabbed on the basis of fingerprint matching. The cops had collected his fingerprints during his arrest in a massive Rs26 lakh burglary at Karanja Lad.
Later, the police team of senior PI GJ Jamdar under PSI Arun Bakal and including head constable Abdul Wakil Shaikh, naik constables Vinod Samudre, Prakash Pakhan and others, trapped Abdul Rehman from whom the booty worth more than Rs5.30 lakh were recovered.
Meanwhile, Kotwali police on Friday night foiled a robbery bid by five persons near Gangabai Ghat. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Kotwali police led by PSI Ajay Lingnurkar raided a secluded place near Gangabai Ghat and arrested Prajwal Kakde (22, a resident of Bahadura), Chetan Lokhande (24, a resident of Wathoda), Aman Bhamode (18, a resident of Mahal), Praful Shivrejar (26, a resident of Pardi) and Pankaj Samarth (32, a resident of Manikpura Chowk).
Police have also recovered a saw, sword, nylon rope, chilli powder and stumps. Police said the five were planning a robbery when they were arrested. The police have booked them under sections 399, read with 402 of the IPC and 4, 25 of the Arms Act, 135 of Bombay Police Act.