Pune: Warje Malwadi cops bust bike theft gang

PUNE: Police busted a gang of motorcycle thieves active in stores of a supermarket chain with the arrest of two persons from a two-wheeler repairing garage at Jambhulwadi in Katraj on Wednesday and their accomplice.
Sagar Chavan (27) and Sandip Andhale (21) were arrested from the garage, while sub-inspector Rameshwar Parve arrested the duo's accomplice, Akash Lokhande (22) of Warje Malwadi. The trio would be in the police custody till September 11

"Akash admitted that the gang had stolen over 30 motorcycles in the last three months and scrapped most of them," senior inspector Shankar Khatke of the Warje Malwadi police said. He said the police had so far detected 18 cases registered at Warje Malwadi, Alankar, Haveli, Hadapsar, Chatushrungi, Wakad, Hinjewadi and Pimpri police stations.
Deputy commissioner of police (Zone-III) Pournima Gaikwad told TOI that the kingpin of the gang, Sagar, revealed during the custodial interrogation that they used to steal motorcycles from the premises of the supermarket stores as they knew their target would spend at least an hour there."
She said, "After identifying the target, Sandip or Akash would follow the person inside. Sagar used to keep a watch near the motorcycle. After getting signal from inside, he would steal the motorcycle using a duplicate key and his accomplice would leave the premises on another motorcycle."
Gaikwad said, "Sagar revealed that he stole motorcycles of a particular make because they were heavy. He would get Rs3,000 per motorcycle after selling it as scrap."
She said Sagar had taken the garage on rent in Jambhulwadi to dismantle stolen vehicles. "The probe so far revealed that they had sold few engines in Gujarat, which were being used for boats," Gaikwad said.
On July 18, Karvenagar's Rajat Lokhande (27) had approached the Warje Malwadi police and filed a complaint about the theft of his motorcycle from the premises of a supermarket. Police constable Nandkishore Chavan was moved when he found that Rajat was helpless after the bike theft because he had a field job.
Senior inspector Khatke said "We have recovered five stolen motorcycles, including Rajat's bike, from the arrested trio," he said.