Palghar: Five members of inter-state gang of robbers held

An official on Wednesday said that the police have arrested five members of an interstate gang of robbers days after they allegedly robbed a courier office owner of more than Rs 73000 using weapons at Manickpur in Maharashtras Palghar district reported news agency PTIThe action against the interstate gang of robbers was taken by the Crime Detection Cell of Manickpur police under the Mira BhayandarVasai Virar police commissionerate he said reported PTIThe incident had occurred on August 19 when armed dacoits stormed into a courier office and robbed the owner of Rs 73700 at gunpoint and using a chopper senior inspector Raju Mane of the Manickpur police station said reported PTIThe police examined the footage of 100 CCTV cameras and based on technical and intelligence inputs they initially apprehended Ajay Balram Mandal a local resident whose interrogation led to the arrest of other accused he said reported PTIThey were identified as Shankar Gowda from Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka Vijay Singh from Uttar Pradesh Mohammad Shaikh from New Delhi and Lalmani Yadav from Jharkhand he added reported PTIThe accused already face criminal cases in various states in India including Karnataka Gujarat and Maharashtra Mane said reported PTIIn connection with the Manickpur incident the police registered a case against them under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita BNS sections 310 dacoity 311 robbery or dacoity with intent to cause death or grievous hurt 309 robbery 3512 criminal intimidation and others he saidDuring the investigation the police recovered an automatic pistol eight live rounds a car and other material collectively worth Rs 314 lakh he saidPetrol pump owner found dead in his car in Palghar districtIn another case the body of a petrol pump owner reported missing was found in his car abandoned on the MumbaiAhmedabad Highway in Palghar district on Monday afternoon with police suspecting he was strangled to death an official said reported PTIRamchandra Khakarani 75 a resident of Ulhasnagar in adjoining Thane district owned a petrol pump in the Chandansar area of Palghar district and had been missing since Sunday night he said reported PTIAccording to the police Khakarani left for home after collecting Rs 50000 from his petrol pump manager on Sunday night His driver Mukesh Khubchandani 54 was accompanying him at the time However Khakarani never reached home and his sons attempts to contact him were unsuccessful reported PTIBoth Khakaranis and Khubchandanis mobile phones were switched off prompting the businessmans family to file missing persons complaints at the Naigaon police station of the Mira BhayandarVasai Virar MBVV commissionerate they said reported PTIOn Monday afternoon Khakaranis body was discovered in his car found within Pelhar police station limits on the MumbaiAhmedabad Highway and the police suspect he was strangled to death said the official adding his driver Khubchandani was still missing reported PTIThe police have sent Khakaranis body for postmortem examination to a government hospital and registered a case of murder under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita BNS the official saidAn investigation in the case was underway he addedWith inputs from PTI