Navi Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch Unit II has arrested two persons for the alleged theft of a fungicidal chemical worth ₹1.64 crore from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). The chemical consignment was to be exported to the U.S.
Officers said 180 boxes of the chemical were recovered from the accused, identified as Pravesh Rampujan Chaudhary alias Satish Pandey alias Rajesh Santlal Rajbhar (26), a resident of Uran, and Vijay Namdev Amle (44), a Thane resident.
Arrest in two days “The case was registered at Nhava Sheva police station on August 22. The accused were arrested in two days,” said Nitin Kausdikar, ACP (Crime Branch).
Senior police inspector Nivrutti Kolhatkar, Crime Branch Unit II, said, “A Taloja-based firm had hired BLR Logistics to transport 180 boxes of the chemical to JNPT, from where it was supposed to be exported to New York. The logistics firm hired transport from Shri Krishna Road Lines. The truck driver, who is wanted by the police, took the consignment to a godown in Bhiwandi instead of JNPT, and abandoned the container at Palghar on August 13.”
Days later, when the Taloja-based company realised that the consignment hadn’t reached JNPT, they enquired with the logistics company. “The transporters learned about the theft after the abandoned container was found in Palghar, following which they registered a complaint,” said API Subhash Pujari, Crime Branch Unit II.
The accused were arrested at Taloja on August 24. DCP (Crime Branch) Tushar Doshi said, “Pandey, whose real name is Chaudhary, is wanted by the police in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, and Thane. This is the first time he has been arrested. His modus operandi was to work as a driver using fake driving licences, and to steal consignments. Amle is a first-timer; his role was to arrange for a godown in Bhiwandi to store the chemical.”
The police said five other accused are wanted in the case. The main accused is suspected to be in New Delhi, and has stored 45 of the 180 stolen boxes in a godown there.
“The accused had taken the boxes to Delhi as samples for customers. We recovered them in Delhi, but the accused could not be nabbed,” said Mr. Pujari.
Both the accused were remanded in police custody till September 5 by a local court.
