Pune: The city police on Wednesday claimed to have cracked the armed robbery of gold ornaments worth Rs4.5 lakh on Tuesday afternoon from a jewellery store in Vadgaon Budruk following the arrest of three suspects, including the mastermind. The entire booty and a toy gun used to threaten the victim — the store owner’s wife — were recovered from the trio. The police, after the recovery of a billhook used in the crime, said the robbery was planned to make some quick money. The arrested trio’s 16-year-old accomplice was detained on Tuesday afternoon from the Vadgaon Budruk area. His questioning led the police to the three major suspects. “We arrested Omkar Ravi Shinde (22) of Narhe, and Vardan Sanjay Kharatmal (20) and Amar Hanumant Wabhale (20) of Vadgaon Budruk from Ahilyanagar early in the morning on Wednesday after pursuing leads from the minor’s questioning and our own tracking of the trio’s movement.” additional commissioner of police (crime) Pankaj Deshmukh said.He said, “Shinde had planned the robbery and did a recce of the jewellery store. The minor boy, along with Kharatmal and Wabhale, executed the crime. Kharatmal has previous body offence cases to his name, while Shinde was involved in sexual assault cases.”Three people, with their faces covered, had barged into Shri Gajanan Jewellery store in Vadgaon Budruk when Mangal (55), the wife of the jeweller, Shankar Gharge, was alone manning the counter inside. The trio assaulted the woman on her head before robbing the ornaments and drove away from the spot on a bike. The jeweller had gone to deliver ornaments to a client then.The police worked on CCTV footage, the bike’s registration number and cellphone tower location movement to trace the minor and detained him from his residence in the same area on Tuesday. The Sinhagad Road police registered a case under sections 311 (robbery or dacoity with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 3 (5), which refers to common intention, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. “The minor revealed the names of his three accomplices,” Deshmukh said.The Sinhagad Road police and the Pune city crime branch jointly pursued the leads under senior inspectors Dilip Dhaingade and Bhausaheb Patil, and assistant inspector Dnyaneshwar Dhawale. Investigations revealed that the minor returned home after the robbery, while Shinde, Kharatmal and Wabhale went to Janata Vasahat using roads not under CCTV cameras’ surveillance. Later, they reached Swargate on the bike used in the crime and left it there. Kharatmal and Wabhale boarded a bus to Ahilyanagar. Shinde took another motorcycle they had kept at Swargate to drive all the way to Ahilyanagar, the police said.
