Thane: Lab technician, 9 others held for Rs 1.3 crore robbery at nursing home

KALYAN: Three months after masked men broke into a nursing home-cum-residence of a doctor couple in Ambernath, tied and locked up the staff and patients at knifepoint, and fled with valuables worth nearly Rs 1.3 crore, Thane police arrested 10 people, including a laboratory technician who earlier worked at the nursing home, and two jewellers. One of the accused bought a resale flat in Badlapur with his share of the loot, said police.
"Even as our two teams were struggling for clues for two months as the robbers had fled with the DVR of the CCTV camera at the nursing home, a team led by sub-inspector Harshal Rajput from Vithalwadi police station in Ulhasnagar got a tipoff about one of the robbers from an informer," DCP (zone 4) Prashant Mohite told TOI. "Rajput shared the information with me and our teams followed the suspect and collected evidence." After police arrested him, he spilled the beans on his accomplices.
Police arrested lab technician Jyoti Salekar (34), who had quit from Usha Nursing Home in February, Chetan Dudhane (30), Harish Ghadge (28), Akshay Jadhav (26), Kunal Chaudhary (21), Dipak Waghmare (42), Tushar Solase (41), as well as jewellers Babusingh Chadana (41) and Gopal Ravariya (38) who had bought the ornaments from them.
Rajput told TOI, "Salekar said she had told Solase and Dudhane that Dr Harish Lapsia and his wife Usha kept a lot of cash and jewellery at home. The duo roped in their friends and planned the robbery."
Police said on July 11 night, the masked robbers who came in a car, barged into the nursing home in the Kansai area, threatened the staff and patients at knifepoint, snatched their phones, tied them up and locked them in rooms on the ground and first floors. They then climbed to the second floor where Dr Usha was sleeping, and threatened her to hand over cash and jewellery. Before fleeing, they took the DVR of the CCTV camera.
Police have so far recovered 1,170gm gold, seven phones, Rs 83,000 cash and a car from the arrested suspects.