Cops track gang after robber’s message to girlfriend

Nagpur: A message sent by the mastermind of the Jaripatka heist to his girlfriend gave away the location of the gang which had looted Rs 4 lakh and 70 tola of gold and silver from Ashish Naware, a jeweller, on Monday. A well-coordinated operation by cops from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh saw two of the four robbers being nabbed. Umakant Pandey, the key man, managed to escape.
Virendra Yadav and Deepak Tripathi were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday. Pandey, who was in a lodge at Chhapra village which is 40kms from Katni in MP, and another identified man are on the run. After committing the robbery at around 2.10 pm, the four had fled on two bikes. They were trapped exactly 12 hours later.
City police checked CCTV footage at 82 locations and reviewed around 400 hours of footages for clues, according to police chief Amitesh Kumar. Cops from Katni, Jabalpur and Nagpur were involved in the operation that ended 240 kms from the jewellery shop.
Police have recovered two revolvers and two live cartridges, 1 kg silver and some gold. All four had crime records in Uttar Pradesh.
The cops got into action after Naware told them that the voice of one of the robbers was similar to that of a customer who had visited the shop on July 1 along with another woman whose identity has not been disclosed yet.
“The two had visited an ATM (Barakholi). The bank helped police get details about the woman account holder. On checking her frequently dialled number, we zeroed down on Pandey and started tracing his number,” said Kumar.
CCTV footage had captured the gang passing through Mansar toll naka at 2.56 pm and Khwasa border at 3.45 pm. “After that they were tracked only at the lodge,” said Kumar.
After Nagpur police alerted their Jabalpur and Katni counterparts about the tower location of the gang, two teams from MP rushed to the place.
On seeing the police, Pandey and one robber managed to flee. Yadav and Tripathi (knee fracture) got injured when their bike collided with an MP police vehicle.
Pandey had turned his bike onto Chhindwada Road and headlong into Nagpur police. Dumping their bike, Pandey and aide escaped under cover of darkness in the adjoining thick forest. They had stolen the bike from Durg in Chhattisgarh.
For the second time, Pandey gave away his location when he made a call to his girlfriend from a borrowed phone. But he had vanished when the cops reached the spot after tracing the cell tower location.
Police said Pandey’s girlfriend, daughter of an ex-paramilitary personnel, was residing at Kushi Nagar. After conducting a recce on July 1, they summoned the other three from Chhattisgarh.
When cops went beyond their official duties
Senior cops from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh went beyond their protocol and duties to coordinate the action.
While CP Amitesh Kumar got help from his batchmate ADG (cyber security) Yogesh Choudhury in Madhya Pradesh, Zonal DCP Vinita S co-ordinated with her batchmate, Jabalpur SP. Katni SP, despite being on leave, co-ordinated with his additional SP to ensure that Katni police actively participated in the operation. Zonal DCP Neelotpal co-ordinated with Katni and Jabalpur inspectors.