PANAJI
The Panaji police busted an interstate gang of thieves who stole jewellery worth Rs 4.53 lakh approx from a store where they posed as prospective buyers.
The accused, all of whom have a string of cases registered against them in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, were traced within hours of registering a theft complaint.
In his complaint, the store owner alleged that two unknown elderly women and an unknown couple committed theft of one gold chain weighing 40.23 grams worth Rs 2,37,309 and one Mangalsutra worth Rs 2,16,350 while pretending to buy pieces of jewellery posing as customers.
"The CCTV footage was scanned through and the suspected persons' images were circulated to police stations within and outside Goa for their identification. Our reliable informants identified them and disclosed their involvement in other similar offenses, after which the accused were kept under surveillance," the Panaji police said.
Their mobile location was traced near Yeshwantpur junction in Bangalore soon after which a team of Panaji police was dispatched. "They were intercepted in Yeshwantpur while travelling in a vehicle bearing registration number MH-16-AJ-0562. All the accused were brought at Panaji PS and arrested for the offence," he said.
The accused have confessed to the crime while also revealing that the stolen ornaments were sold in Pune-Maharashtra. A Panaji Police team subsequently left for Pune along with one of the accused Dhanraj Parmar for the recovery of stolen gold ornaments. "Around 40.27 grams of gold/yellow metal in melted form was recovered at the instance of the accused. Part of stolen property is yet to be made," the police said.
Sheetal, wife of accused Dhanraj, Shama Bahisade, aged 60 years, and Vidhya Salunke, aged 56 years are the other three accused booked for the offence.
