Pune: A crime branch team of the Pune Rural police on Sunday arrested three men on the charge of abducting a 40-year-old scrap vendor on April 23 from Baramati posing as policemen. The suspects told the victim that he had purchased stolen material from thieves and demanded Rs15 lakh, after threatening to arrest him. Before abandoning him near Chikhali village along the Daund-Ahmednagar highway, the gang robbed him of Rs8,000 and his cellphone.
The superintendent of police (Pune Rural), Pankaj Deshmukh , said the local crime branch team, led by inspector Avinash Shilimkar, checked CCTV footage and traced a hatchback car the suspects used to abduct the scrap vendor. "We received a tip-off that the car belonged to a criminal on the police records, Santosh Bhandalkar (42) of Baramati," Deshmukh said. He said the police team laid a trap on Pune-Solapur highway and nabbed Bhandalkar, along with his accomplice, Suresh Rakhpasare (33) of Manjari.
"During the questioning, the duo admitted to their involvement in the crime and revealed names of their four accomplices. We have arrested one of them, Shekhar Shinde (32) from Sangvi village in Baramati," Deshmukh said. He said the police had recovered two country-made pistols and a car from the arrested trio.
"Investigations also revealed that the gang had planned to rob a jewellery shop along the Sangola-Jat road. We nabbed them before they could execute their plan," Deshmukh said..