ATM theft gang admits to murder of cab driver

Pune: A five-member gang arrested last week for trying to uproot an ATM from Chakan MIDC revealed their involvement in the murder of a driver and carjacking on July 27.
The residents of Mirajewadi village had found a sports utility vehicle (SUV) in 200ft deep gorge on July 28 morning. Suspecting it to be an accident, the villagers searched the vehicle but found no one inside.A few hours later, a body of an unidentified person was found in the bushes at Bhomale, a few kilometres away from Mirajewadi.
The deceased was later identified as Arun Chabukswar (23), a resident of Ramling village in Shirur Taluka. He was bludgeoned to death with some hard object. Chabukswar was the driver of the SUV found in the gorge.
While the Khed police were investigating the murder case of Chabukswar, the Chakan police received a tip-off that a gang of criminals was preparing to rob cash from an automated teller machine (ATM) in Chakan MIDC. A police team led by sub-inspector Mahesh Mundhe laid a trap near the ATM kiosk and nabbed the five persons.
During the questioning, the gang members - Deepak Kasabi (27) of Khed, Ramdas Salunke (29) and Santosh Jadhav (29) of Pabal, Ganesh Rajguru (24) of Moshi and Ganesh Pawar (19) of Kiwale - revealed that they had planned to uproot the ATM from the kiosk and steal cash.
Mundhe said during the sustained interrogation the gang members revealed their plot of abducting a truck carrying goods worth Rs 12 crore from Chakan MIDC. They said they had hired an SUV for executing their plan. "When police asked about the SUV, the suspects revealed that they had pushed the vehicle into the gorge near Khed after killing the driver," he said.
The sub-inspector said the gang had approached a tour operator of Ramling village in Shirur on July 27 and hired the SUV on the pretext of going to Bhimshankar. The driver, Chabukswar, had gone with them. The gang members reached near Bhomale village in Khed taluka in the evening. "They bludgeoned the driver and dumped his body in the bushes," Mundhe said. The suspects could not execute their plot to rob the truck, though. Subsequently, they decided to destroy the SUV.