Cash ₹32L recovered, stabber too in custody

Nagpur: City police crime branch have recovered cash ₹32 lakh, gold worth ₹8 lakh and other valuables from the five persons arrested so far in the stabbing and robbery at the house of 82-year-old Suresh Potdukhe. Among those arrested is Hrishikesh Pendle, who had stabbed the elderly Potdukhe, who stayed alone at Indraprastha Housing Society in the jurisdiction of Sonegaon police station.
Though Potdukhe had earlier claimed to have lost cash around ₹22 lakh, the cops feel this must have been due to panic and shock of the stabbing and robbery at his house. The crime branch, under DCP crime Mummaka Sudarshan had earlier arrested four persons in the case, including Potdukhe’s former driver Vinayak Mudafale and his friend Vinod Sontakke.
The cops had also nabbed hardened burglar Shubham Manke and Niger Lawrence too. The last person to be arrested was Pendle.
CP Amitesh Kumar said Manke had around 20 cases against him. “We are contemplating invoking MCOCA in the case,” he said, adding the rest of the accused would also be arrested soon. “We have also invoked the charges of dacoity in the case,” said the top cop, who summoned the crime branch teams under senior inspectors Gnyaneshwar Bhedodkar, Shubhangi Deshmukh and others to praise their efforts.
Kumar said the crime branch teams had visited several places and used technical and manual intelligence to crack the case.
The case is being monitored by DCP crime Mummaka Sudarshan and Zonal DCP Anurag Jain.