Pune: The Vishrambaug police claimed to have detected two of the four recent street robberies in which victims' gold chains were snatched after arguments over petty issues. A police team led by senior inspector Vijaymala Pawar arrested three men and detained their minor accomplice in this connection. Two gold chains and two scooters were recovered from them.
The gang robbed a 20-year-old student of his gold chain worth Rs60,000 after intercepting his bike in front of Sundarbai Rathi School on Laxmi Road on Aug 12. Earlier, they had robbed a techie of his gold chain worth Rs2 lakh in Karvenagar on August 7 in a similar manner. The suspects, Kasim Ansari (22) and Aniket Fasge (22) of Ganj Peth, Ashraf Sayyad (20) of Hadapsar, and their minor accomplice were taken into custody from Kranti Chowk in Budhwar Peth recently.
Sub-inspector Manoj Barure of the Vishrambaug police said Ansari had a case of body offence against him. The others did not have any previous criminal record. "They came in contact with each other through some common friend.
All of them are jobless. The minor suspect gave them the idea of targeting lone two-wheeler drivers, picking up a quarrel with them over some non-existent issue and snatching their gold chains," Barure said. He said the suspects revealed during the questioning that they had targeted five more two-wheeler drivers in the period of almost a month.
"They had to drive away in some cases after passersby stopped them. They did not find anything with.