Navi Mumbai: The vice-sarpanch of Chawandiya village in Pali, Rajasthan, has been arrested for stealing cigarettes worth ₹91.05 lakh from a godown in the APMC market.
The man, identified as Tejas Champalal Unecha (33), was arrested last week at Turbhe, after the APMC police contacted him as traders, and fixed a meeting at Turbhe for buying cigarettes.
Following his arrest, the police arrested five of his associates — Mukesh Choudhary (35), Surendra Choudhary (22), Champalal Verma (27), Ratanlal Dangi (30) and Suresh Choudhary (27) — in Pune.
When assistant police inspector Rahul Rakh and his team from the APMC police station had gone to Pune to nab Suresh and Mukesh, they assaulted him, causing a fracture. A case against the duo was registered with the Chandan Nagar police. A Swift Desire and a UCO sports car, suspected to be stolen, were recovered from the duo.
Later, Verma and Dangi were arrested. They revealed that the stolen cigarettes were sold to Suresh, who had a general stores in Pune. “From the stolen booty, cigarettes worth ₹15 lakh were recovered from the shop of Suresh,” said Mr. Rakh.
The accused in the wee hours of July 30 had broken into Shivram Enterprises godown at APMC and made away with cigarettes. Harvinder Balkriahna Jaggi, owner of the godown, registered a complaint with the APMC police.
The police got a tip-off about Unecha, who was once arrested by the Surat police in a theft, and had committed a similar crime in Pune. A CCTV footage confirmed that it was Unecha and his associates who carried out the crime.
“The gang has at least 10 cases against them with the Gujarat, Pune city, and the Pune rural police. We have initiated the procedure to book them under the MCOCA as well,” said assistant inspector Uddhav Damale from APMC police station.
The accused have been arrested under Sections 454, 457, 380, 120b, 411, 413, and 34 of the IPC.
