In a breakthrough in the Thane cash management firm heist case, the Thane Police and Crime Branch sleuths — working in tandem — have arrested six persons, including a staffer and an ex-employee, and recovered `3.12 crore out of the total `9.16 crore cash looted from the firm on Tuesday last.
Having recovered three four wheelers—one Zylo and two Maruti Suzuki Eeco—belonging to the persons, the investigators are on the lookout for some more persons who had a role to play in the daring pre-dawn robbery that the armed gangsters committed at the Checkmate Services Pvt limited on June 28.
Complimenting the detection teams for bringing off a swift breakthrough in the sensational robbery case, Maharashtra’s Director General of Police Pravin Dixit said, “In 48 hours, we have managed to solve the case…a total of six persons have been arrested and cash to the tune of `3.12 crore has been recovered so far”.
The six gangsters were arrested from Thane, Satpur and Nashik. “Given that the gangsters had stolen from the company the CCTV DVR along with the cash in three drums, the investigators had to make do without footage of the incident. The investigators worked on technical inputs and human intelligence and cracked the case within 48 hours,” Dixit said.
Dixit said that the top priority for the investigators was to recover the remaining stolen cash and arrest others behind the heist. “Our teams of police officers have spread across the state and have also gone to a few other States to trace other accused behind the robbery.
We are confident of nabbing all the culprits soon,” the State DGP said.
Based on the information received from the looted firm, the investigators have now pegged the stolen money at Rs 9.16 crore. Initial reports had said that the stolen booty was Rs 12 crore. However, the police said on the evening of the incident that the stolen cash was Rs 5 cro
Thane Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, who was present along with the State DGP at the news conference where the robbery breakthrough was announced, said that a current staffer, Amol Karle (26), and a former employee Aakash Chavan alias Chingya were among those arrested in connection with the crime.
“We have also arrested from Nashik Umesh Suresh Wagh (28) who planned the daring dacoity,” Singh said.
Apart from Chavan, Karle and Wagh, three other arrested gangsters were arrested as Nitesh Bhagwan Awhad alias Golu (22), Mayur Rajendra Kadam alias Ajinkya, 21 all residents of Thane, and Harishchandra Uttam Mathe (30), a resident from Nashik.
According to Singh, Chavan who had been working with Checkmate Services Pvt limited till February 2016 and in his place, he recommended Amol Karle as a replacement for him. Incidentally, Karle was among those who were present in the company when the robbery took The investigations have revealed that the gangsters had planned the robbery for a period of over two months, before it was executed. “The insiders knew that the large cash collected from various sources on Saturdays and Sundays and the money was stored in the firm on Mondays. Naturally, at the time of the incident, the cash so lying in the company was to the tune of around Rs. 25 to 30 crore. The dacoits decamped as much cash as they could carry in three drums,” Singh
Working as they were on the insider information, the gangsters barged inside the office of Checkmate Services mited at 3 am, threatened the staffers present at the point of a revolver, knives and a chopper and decamped with Rs 9.16 crore cash loaded in three drums, in just twenty minutes. They switched off the CCTV cameras and took away the DVR recorder from the crime
After the robbery, the gangsters assembled at Wadivare near Nashik and distributed the booty among them, before they left for their respective
Meanwhile, the investigators have recovered a pistol and a knife used by the gangsters in the heist and they are looking for the chopper and other things they were carrying with them at the time of crime.