Pune: Trio arrested for stealing phones & TV worth Rs 61 lakh

PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad police on Monday arrested three construction workers from Thane for breaking into two electronic equipment showrooms in Bhosari earlier this month and stealing 244 cellphones and an LED TV, collectively worth Rs61 lakh.
The Bhosari police team led by senior inspector Bhaskar Jadhav checked the footage of 125 CCTV cameras and traced the suspects to Thane.
Sub-inspector Ravindra Bhavari and team laid traps in Thane and nabbed the trio.
The police recovered 213 stolen handsets and an LED TV, collectively worth Rs59 lakh from the suspects — Janib-Ul-Haque Ali (33), Jabbar Ali (21) and Jehangir Shaikh (32) — all currently residing at a construction site in Thane, originally from West Bengal. Their two accomplices were on the run.
“The police team had visited Jharkhand to arrest the duo. However, they escaped,” an officer from the Bhosari police said.
In the early hours of January 4, two members from the gang had entered an electronic equipment showroom in Bhosari by cutting open its tin roof and stole high-end smartphones worth Rs55 lakh. The burglars also damaged the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the facility.
After 10 days, they broke into one more showroom and stole 21 high-end smartphones and an LED television set, collectively worth Rs5.71 lakh.
Explaining the modus of the gang, Jadhav said that the during the day, the gang used to work at the construction site in Thane and then come to Pune at night to conduct a recce of the electronic equipment showrooms.
“Later at night, they would break into the showrooms and steal the handsets,” Jadhav said.
“The probe also revealed that the gang was also involved in stealing handsets from other cities in Maharashtra and also from other states. They used to sell the stolen handsets in Bangladesh,” Jadhav added.