Nine caught for highway robberies

Ahmedabad: A team of the Ahmedabad rural police arrested nine youths for robberies on state highways. Police caught the group with a truck laden with polymer beads worth Rs 14.38 lakh that was robbed from near Koth on November 14. According to Ahmedabad rural police, Jawahar Shetty, the owner of a transport firm in Jamnagar, had registered a complaint with Koth police station saying that the truck had been loaded with the beads from a Reliance Industries unit on November 13.
When the truck was near Vejalka village on Bagodara-Vataman road at 2 am on November 14, a group forced the driver to stop and soon overpowered him and the cleaner.The group dumped the goods at an unspecified location and dropped the truck along with driver and cleaner near Chanasma. P O Bhatt, in-charge SP of Ahmedabad rural, said that a joint team of LCB and local police was formed for a probe. “The team had got CCTV footage of a few key locations that provided initial clues,” he said. “Working on the information, the team caught nine persons from different locations on Sunday.”
The accused include Karmarajsinh Padhiyar, 21, Rohitsinh Jadeja, 21, Ahmed Malek, 22, Gul Mohammad Sama, 24, Laden Safiya, 19, Yasin Sama, 21, Ravirajsinh Jadeja, 25, and Dhaval Agrawat, 26, all residents of Jamnagar, along with Sandeep Patel, 33, a resident of Vijapur. Investigators said that Padhiyar, considered to be the mastermind, along with a few others, came from good families but they got involved in robberies for the excitement and also to get money for a high-flying lifestyle. Police have seized an SUV and a car belonging to the accused.
“The accused have earlier been caught for offences such as scuffling, violation of prohibition laws, and possession of a banned chemical,” said Bhatt. “They had already identified a buyer for the stock.”