The Taloja police have arrested a transporter and a driver for allegedly stealing trolleys that were used to transport containers.
The accused have been identified as Ameer Shaikh (42) from Wadala and Dashrath Dhamal (53) from Sewri. The duo was arrested on November 12 after the police found out that the accused stored the trolleys at a yard in Sewri and rented them out. Senior police inspector Kashinath Chavan said, “The trolleys were used as a base to transport containers. Mr. Shaikh was a transporter and he had an engine that could be used to drag these trolleys. He used to visit yards and attach the trolleys to his engine. The duo would then make away with them.”
Mr. Chavan said Mr. Shaikh and Mr. Dhamal have been stealing trolleys for the past one year. He said, “Mr. Shaikh used to rent out the trolleys at ₹15,000 per month. We have secured the CCTV footage of the accused stealing a trolley from the RAF area in Taloja. He can see them enter only with the engine and later come out along with a trolley. We found this activity suspicious.” The police had formed one team to trace the accused with the help of the engine’s registration number and another to track them using data dump from the areas where the thefts occurred.
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The duo was found to be involved in 11 thefts. While four cases were from Uran, two each were from Taloja and Nhava Sheva, and one each from Panvel City, Kamothe and Hill Line. The 11 stolen trolleys and the engine worth around ₹50 lakh have been recovered from the yard in Sewri.