Pune: A woman scrap collector’s ordeal ended in tragedy after a truck driver offered her a lift, robbed her of gold jewellery worth Rs80,000 and abandoned her near the Shirur bypass, about 67km from Pune, on Friday night. While returning home on a motorcycle with another man, who was her acquaintance and had offered her a lift, she died in an accident involving another truck.Two separate complaints were registered with the Shirur and Ranjangaon police on Monday. The Shirur police have traced and arrested the truck driver whose vehicle hit the motorcycle on the Pune-Nagar highway around 9pm on June 27, killing ragpicker Sangita Shinde (49) of Dhavalgaon in Ahilyanagar district.Police are searching for the two men who allegedly robbed Shinde around 8.30pm the same evening.An officer from the Pune Rural police said Shinde used to travel daily from Ahilyanagar district to the Karegaon MIDC and Saradwadi areas to collect scrap for selling it, before returning home. Her son stated in his complaint that when he called his mother around 8.15pm on June 27, she told him that she had taken a lift in a truck and would be home soon.“However, when her son called her again sometime later, his mother was crying, and told him that the driver, who had offered her a lift, snatched her gold jewellery and abandoned her near the Shirur bypass,” the officer said.The officer said another man then spoke to Shinde’s son, identifying himself as a resident of their neighbouring village, who found the woman crying by the roadside and seeking help from passers-by. The acquaintance assured the woman’s son that he was taking her home on his motorcycle.“Later, when the complainant called his mother again, he was informed that she was in an accident. When the woman’s son reached Shirur, he found that his mother was dead. As she was returning home on the motorcycle, a truck hit the two-wheeler. Shinde fell off and came under the truck’s wheels,” the officer said.The officer added that the woman’s acquaintance sustained minor injuries in the accident.
