Kolhapur police arrest 7 suspects in Rs 1.2cr bus robbery, recover stolen valuables | Mumbai News

Kolhapur: The police on Tuesday arrested seven suspects within 12 hours of a Rs 1.2 crore armed dacoity late on Monday night. The suspects had allegedly forced a Mumbai-bound private bus to stop at Wathar, about 22km from Kolhapur city along the national highway to Bengaluru, and robbed 60kg silver, 10g gold and some machinery parts from an Angadia service staffer. The police have recovered the entire property that was robbed during the dacoity.The cleaner of the bus, who knew the Angadia worker fairly well due to the latter’s frequent trips with parcels, was identified among the seven arrested suspects. He allegedly connived with the main suspect, Akshay Kadam, a 31-year-old from Vikram Nagar in Kolhapur, and five others to execute the crime, the police said.

According to the preliminary investigation, the cleaner of the bus, identified as Saifu Afghani (22), a resident of Madina Colony of Uchgaon village, and his brother Jaid (21), were under debt of Rs 8 lakh. Saifu told Jaid about the transport of the valuables on the bus. Jaid then contacted his friend Akshay Kadam and Aman Sayyad (21), both residents of the Vikram Nagar locality of Kolhapur city. They, in turn, brought in Sujal Chougale (20), Adinath Vipate (25), and Adesh Kamble (18), all three residents of Akashwani Road, Sangli. Together, they planned the robbery a week ago.According to the plan, Kadam and Jaid boarded the bus at Kawala Naka, the entrance of Kolhapur city along the highway. The cleaner, Saifu, was also on the bus. The bus had left from the Central Bus Stand. After crossing Wathar, just before the Kini toll booth, Kadam and Jaid went into the driver’s cabin and asked him to stop the bus, threatening to harm him with a machete.“The two also put the machete to the neck of the cleaner and asked the driver to stop the bus and open the luggage space. They beat up the driver and the cleaner. Then they took away the parcels with the silver and gold. Two more accused arrived on bikes. They left with Kadam and Jaid. Tracing the movement of the bikes from the crime spot back to Kolhapur, we found one of the accused to be Kadam, who is known for petty crimes. We searched his house and recovered the robbed silver and gold and arrested him,” said inspector Pramod Shinde, of the Vadgaon police station.There were 31 passengers on the bus. After reaching Kini toll booth, the driver contacted the police about the incident. “We found that none of the passengers knew what was happening in the cabin. Maybe they were sleeping, and due to the sound of the air conditioning system, they may not have heard what was going on. To avoid being captured on CCTV cameras at the toll booth, the bus was stopped much before it, and within a few minutes, the suspects robbed the valuables. The valuables are now in our custody. The Angadia will get it back only after verification through the court,” said Shinde.Kadam told the police that the other accused were going to reach Temblai Nagar in Kolhapur city, where the robbed valuables were to be distributed. The police arrested the rest of the accused from Temblai Nagar. All the accused were presented before Kolhapur’s court on Wednesday. The court granted police custody of the accused till Dec 26.