MCOCA invoked against gang for robbing elderly couples

Pune: The city police on Friday invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against a gang of five.
One of the arrested men, Sandeep Bhagwan Hande (25), would pose as a caregiver to elderly couples before robbing them with his accomplices.
Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta issued the orders. Additional commissioner of police Namdev Chavan framed the MCOCA charges.
The Chatushrungi police had arrested Hande, a resident of Aurangabad. and his five accomplices — Kishor Kalyan Changhate (21), Bholesh alias Krushna Chavan (25) and Bharat Badrinath Changhate (21), also from Aurangabad, Mangesh Bandu Gunde (20) of Jalna, and Vikram Deepak Thapa (19) of Nashik — on May 3.
The police have registered two cases of dacoity against them. The gang also has dacoity cases against them in the city and other parts of the state.
“The gang had robbed an elderly couple residing at Vrundavan Housing society at Panchvati in Pashan on April 3. They had tied and gagged the 80-year-old woman and had beaten up her caretaker. The woman’s husband is bedridden. The suspects then robbed valuables worth Rs4.24 lakh,” the police said.
The police added, “Similarly, the gang had robbed an elderly couple in their 70s of Rs15.5 lakh on April 25 and had assaulted their cook.”
The police said that Hande was affiliated with 15 different nursing bureaus. He used to demand assignments at the residents of elderly persons and would often know the way in and around their homes.