Police claim to have identified culprits, teams leave for Allahabad and Kochi

NASHIK: The Nashik (rural) police have sent a team to Allahabad and another to Kochi in search of the criminals who looted 58 kg gold from a logistic van near Wadivare, around 16 km from the city, on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.
Superintendent of police, Nashik (Rural), Sanjay Mohite on Saturday said “We have got some strong evidence in the case and are sure to arrest the culprits at the earliest.Apart from the teams that have been sent to Allahabad and Cochin, five other teams are working on various angles in the case. The investigation into the case has reached a vital point and the criminals have been identified. It is just a matter time they are arrested.”
Five dacoits posing as policemen robbed 60 gold biscuits worth Rs 16.28 crore from a van near Wadivare on the Mumbai-Agra highway early on Friday morning. Each biscuit weighed a kg. The van, belonging to cargo transporter Sequel Logistics of Andheri in Mumbai, was carrying the biscuits to the Shirpur gold refinery in Dhule district. Around 3am, the dacoits travelling in a white car intercepted the van. Claiming to be policemen, they told the transporter’s employees — the driver, two security personnel and a delivery assistant — that they suspected stolen goods were being carried in the van.
After telling the employees that they would be taken to the nearest police station, the dacoits beat them up, threatened them with a pistol and tied them with tapes. The robbers then fled with the gold biscuits.
The police on Saturday said they were also checking the footage of the closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) at different toll nakas. “We have reports that sometime after the crime, a car, matching the description provided by the staffers of the logistic company, passed through the Pimpalgaon toll naka. On checking its registration number, we found that it was of a two wheeler. We believe that the same vehicle must have been used by the criminals. Investigation is on and we have sought the CCTV footage of other toll nakas as well,” Mohite said.
Police officials said that the cargo transporter company had hired the van from some other company, while the delivery staffer in it were also hired from some other company.
Friday’s robbery was one of the biggest robberies in the district in the recent times. The police are still wondering why the delivery of the gold biscuits from Mumbai to Shirpur Gold Refinery was made during night. According to reports, the staffers in the logistics vehicle had stopped for tea near Kasara and again at Latifwadi on the Mumbai-Agra highway. After crossing the Ghoti toll naka, their vehicle was intercepted by the car, from which five people, posing as cops, came out and committed the crime. Before fleeing the scene, they tied the delivery staffers, including the driver, with an adhesive tape and took away their cellphones.