Pune: City police teams on Sunday night carried out an extensive search exercise in the Pandavnagar and Wadarwadi settlements off Senapati Bapat (SB) Road as part of the effort to trace the two culprits involved in Sunday afternoon's assault and robbery on Hanuman Tekdi. However, no breakthrough was reported in the case as of Monday evening. The duo had robbed a gold chain worth Rs70,000 from a college student around 3pm on Sunday, threatening him and a friend with a machete.
The two students had gone to Hanuman Tekdi and sat at the pagoda, a popular spot for visitors, as they waited for two other friends fetching a cake from the Deccan area to celebrate a birthday. At this time, the men threatened and robbed them, then walked off towards the Wadarwadi area. Senior inspector Girisha Nimbalkar of the Deccan Gymkhana police told TOI, "There are seven openings to Hanuman Tekdi from the Wadarwadi and Pandavnagar areas.
Our teams are studying footage from various CCTV cameras at these seven spots." She added, "So far, we have not been able to track down the suspects in the case. However, we have received some inputs on suspects and are working on them.
" From Monday onwards, the Deccan Gymkhana police also intensified patrolling on the hillock. Earlier, police teams said they used to patrol the hillock once every two hours, but now, a team will visit the hillock every 30 minutes. The patrolling will continue till midnight every day.
The robbery on the tekdi has sparked outrage as i.