PUNE, Oct 23: Dacoits continued to send waves of panic in the rural fringes of Pune for the third consecutive day as two more dacoities took place within a span of four hours on Tuesday night.Valuables worth over Rs 6.75 lakh was stolen in two separate incidents - one at Bodkewadi near Dehu village and the other at Ambavane near Paud.Five revolver-wielding men stole Rs. 6.71 lakh worth valuables from one Ashok Gulab Karmare's Ritesh Poultry Farm at Bodkewadi after attacking the farm employees Uttam Bhimrao Chavan and Antim Nagnath Nikam.
The police suspect involvement of another poultry farm worker, Sanjay Bangali, in the crime as after the dacoity was committed he too left with the dacoits in a jeep which had been hired from Chembur, Mumbai.
The jeep was later found abandoned near Sunny Dhaba at Kamshet on Mumbai-Pune highway. Bangali was working at the poultry for six months.
Preliminary investigation shows that he had made a telephone call to friends in Mumbai a couple of days ago, Superintendentof Police (Pune rural) Suresh Khopade said.
Nikam, who had spotted Bangali waiting on the highway on Tuesday night, says Bangali told him that he was waiting for friends from Mumbai. Shortly after that, Bangali arrived at the poultry with the five revolver-wielding persons.
They assaulted Chavan and Nikam, threatened to shoot them and tied them up before snapping the telephone wires. They broke open three cupboards and took away Rs 2.85 lakh in cash and gold ornaments weighing 220 grams.
After untying themselves, Chavan and Nikam contacted the poultry owner and related to him the incident. Karmare then contacted the Dehu Road police.
A Dehu Road police team led by assistant police inspector Ganapatrao Gaikwad was rushed to Mumbai. A sniffer dog and a team of fingerprint experts were summoned from Pune. Some fingerprints were obtained on the cupboards. Senior police officials including Khopade, Superintendent of Police (State CID, Crime) Rajendra Sonavane, Deputy Superintendents of Police RajendraDahale and Subhash Mohekar and Circle Police Inspector Dilip Shinde are camping at Dehu to supervise the investigation.
In another incident at Ambavane, three members of a family were injured when four sword-wielding men attacked their house on Wednesday morning. Ravikant Chandrakant Gandhi and his brothers Shashikant and Manik were fast asleep around 2 am when the men broke open the house door. They decamped with gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 4,000, after attacking the Gandhis with swords. The Gandhi brothers were seriously injured and have been admitted to the Sassoon hospital. Ravikant has lodged a first information report with the Paud police.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.