Nagpur: A fingerprint recovered from a box at Wanadongri crime scene helped Nagpur crime branch crack a ₹40-lakh jewellery store heist and bust a four-member interstate gang after a 7-day hunt across Uttar Pradesh.As per police, a key gang member, Abhishek Singh Thakur, was arrested in Bareilly, while his accomplices Jairam alias Joginder Ashoksingh Thakur, 19, and Shubhankeet Nileshkumar Chaturvedi, 22, were arrested in Noida. The fourth accused, Rajan Sami Sharma, 29, a Nagpur resident, was caught in Meerut while trying to flee to Saharanpur.Police said the kingpin, whose identity is under wraps, came in contact with the Nagpur criminal, Sharma, at Chennai Central Jail, where the latter was lodged in a cryptocurrency fraud case. The other two accused too were doing time in the same prison. Sharma and the kingpin plotted the robbery behind bars and stayed in touch after the former secured bail. Following their release from jail, they met in Delhi to hammer out the plan before executing the heist at Wanadongri on October 3. They then fled to Uttar Pradesh via Delhi.Nagpur police commissioner Vishwas Nangre Patil said investigators tracked the suspects across several cities, analysed footage from 500 CCTV cameras, coordinated with local police and used technical evidence and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to make the arrests.The first breakthrough came from a fingerprint on a jewellery box seized at the crime scene that matched Abhishek’s prints already available in police database. Facial analysis reportedly corroborated his involvement, while his social media accounts helped investigators obtain his mobile number and track his associates.Phone surveillance helped crime branch teams led by DCP Deepak Aggrawal, with support from ACP Vaibhav Jadhav, to launch searches across Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Abhishek’s arrest and interrogation led police to the other accused.Police suspect the gang conducted a recce in Nagpur in Sept before returning in early Oct to execute the robbery. Sharma allegedly received ₹70,000 to arrange a two-wheeler through a local automobile dealer. Investigators are also probing his reported telephone call to the shop owner before the robbery.As per police, Sharma and the kingpin waited in an SUV near Fetri while Abhishek, Joginder and two others carried out the heist using the two-wheeler. The accused allegedly fled towards Delhi in Sharma’s SUV, taking the two-wheeler with them before dumping it in a nullah. Police have seized the SUV.Investigators are probing the gang’s interstate network and the alleged mastermind’s role, while the search for other suspected accomplices continues.“The gang has cases of murder, robbery and other such crimes against its members, and hence MCOCA may be invoked,” police commissioner Nangre Patil said.
