Kingpin of gang who robbed posh homes arrested from Uttar Pradesh

Cops recovered jewellery worth R13L of the Rs 17L valuables stolen from a businessman’s house on Jan 23

The Kandivli police have arrested a 35-year-old man for allegedly heading a gang of thieves who would work as domestic help in houses and later rob them.

The accused, identified as Jawahar Pandey, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, was caught from Gonda after the police traced him through his call data records on March 14.

Accused Pandey

The gang has robbed various houses of well-known politicians, officers and builders in several states, including Haryana and Punjab.

According to the police sources, Pandey, who is the kingpin of the gang, has confessed to the crime.

The complaint

Kandivli police said Gaurav Ketan Shah, 30, had filed a complaint against his domestic help Ramkumar Amarnath and accused him of robbing jewellery from his house when his mother was home alone. Amarnath had joined work on January 1, he claimed.

The police have recovered jewellery worth R13 lakh, out of the R17 lakh worth diamond, gold, and silver jewellery robbed from a businessman's house in Kandivli, on January 23.

"We have arrested Pandey and recovered jewellery worth R13 lakh from him. We are now trying to trace the locations of all his gang members and arrest them," said ACP Shailendra Dhivar.

The probe

During the investigation, the Kandivli police found that the identity documents submitted by Amarnath were fake and other people were involved in the crime.

On scanning, through his call data records, police found that Amarnath had spoken frequently to a number in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh. A special team was formed under the supervision of senior inspector Dinkar Jadhav, inspector Atul Mohite and sub-inspector Suryakant Pawar. The team went to Gonda and after 35 days of investigation, they traced and nabbed Pandey using the technical call data record of the absconding accused, whom Amarnath had called.

"With the help of the local police, we have arrested Pandey and found out that he was the main accused involved in the house breaks. We have recovered the stolen jewellery as Pandey mortgaged them to a local jeweller," said ACP Shailendra Dhivar.

More thefts

Further probe revealed that Pandey had committed similar crimes and was caught by the Model Town City police in Ludhiana district and Airport police in Amritsar district in 2016 and 2018, respectively, which included the burglary in the house of an officer on special duty (OSD) of Haryana's Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Pandey also said that they have been committing robberies since 2010 across the country, including Chandigarh, Haryana, Amritsar and various parts of Uttar Pradesh, said an officer.

During interrogation, he told the police that he planned to commit burglary in the houses of celebrities and politicians in Mumbai, the officer added.